Add as preferred source on Google
Conversations have been happening behind the scenes at Arsenal about Viktor Gyokeres’ duel-winning rate.
Unlike the start of the season, there can be no bad words said about Gyokeres right now, as the striker is the Premier League’s best-performing player since 2026 commenced.
Even Gyokeres’ biggest doubters are praising him, which is music to Arsenal fans’ ears, but still, something’s not quite right.
Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff work meticulously to get the Arsenal squad at their best, and they’ve flagged one concern they have about the Gunners’ summer striker signing.
Who from the current top five will Viktor Gyokeres outscore in the Premier League this season? 👀
Credit: Getty Images/Visionhaus Arsenal’s coaching staff are worried about how poor Viktor Gyokeres is in duels
Journalist Miguel Delaney has been sharing insights into the concerns about Gyokeres when speaking on The Second Captains Podcast.
“There are two things I find most galling when I watch Gyokeres, one is that you almost never see him win a duel,” he said from personal experience.
Delaney’s personal experience is actually shared, as he revealed that upon speaking to people around Arsenal, he’s learned that those inside the club feel the same.
“Speaking to people around the club, this has been discussed, that the ball goes up and it just comes right back or bounces off him.”
Arsenal’s coaching staff are clearly alarmed by the Swede’s duel-winning rate, and when assessing the numbers, their concerns are very valid.
Viktor Gyokeres’ duel-winning statistics compared to the Premier League’s big six strikers
The only way to prove if Gyokeres is really underperforming is to compare him to his peers in the ‘Big Six’.
Selecting strikers from Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham, the results are as bad as Arsenal staff worry they are.
How much closer would Viktor Gyokeres get to Erling Haaland if he became better at winning duels?
Credit: Getty Images/Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside
Just like in the goalscoring charts, Erling Haaland is in a league of his own, winning an average of over half of his duels per game, as per Sofascore’s data.
At the other end of the spectrum is Gyokeres, who is only averaging a painful 32% of duel wins in the Premier League this season.
What is interesting, however, is that out of the six selected strikers, the top three have played in the Premier League for some time, but the bottom three arrived in the summer of 2025.
So, to ease Arsenal’s concern, there’s a pattern there.
It might be that patience is required to get Gyokeres’ averages up in duel-winning, as, like others, he’s clearly struggling to adapt to the physical nature of the Premier League.
Join Our Newsletter
Receive a digest of our best Arsenal content each week direct to your mailbox