Fortunately for Arsenal fans, Mikel Arteta was right about Viktor Gyökeres

Is Viktor Gyökeres starting to discover his best form in an Arsenal shirt just at the right time? On Sunday, the Swedish centre-forward scored twice during the second half as the Gunners demolished fierce North London rivals Tottenham 4-1 in the derby.

This takes Gyökeres' tally to 15 goals across all competitions as well as ten in the Premier League. His tally of eight in 2026 is the most of any Premier League player, dispelling some of the murmurings that he has been a total flop.

In the summer, Benjamin Šeško and Gyökeres were seemingly the two centre-forwards Mikel Arteta and Andrea Berta were choosing between, before going ahead with the latter, paying Sporting a reported fee of £55 million for a man who'd scored 97 goals during two seasons in Portugal.

Well, it has been a long-held theory that being a centre-forward in an Arteta team is an impossible task, with the Spaniard's tactics not set up to allow a striker to thrive. However, is the current number 14 proving that this is simply a myth?

Why Viktor Gyökeres could become Mikel Arteta's best striker

As already mentioned, Gyökeres now has 15 goals to his name for Arsenal, having bagged five in his last five in the Premier League. So, how does that tally compare to previous centre-forwards during the Arteta era?

Most goals by centre-forwards under Mikel Arteta at Arsenal

Amazingly, only Alexandre Lacazette in the lockdown season has scored more goals as a striker in an Arteta Arsenal team, with Gyökeres having matches Kai Havertz's best-ever single season total. Five years ago, Lacazette scored 13 times in the Premier League, once in the EFL Cup and thrice in the Europa League, including a memorable brace away to Slavia Prague.

Well, with modern-day Arsenal still fighting on all four fronts, Gyökeres will surely score the three goals he requires to break this record. So, what is behind his upturn in form?

Since the gut-punch that was the home defeat to Manchester United, Arteta seems to have recognised that the way to get the best out of Gyökeres is to ostensibly given him a partner. Kai Havertz stated essentially as a second striker against Kairat, Leeds and Sunderland, making it no coincidence that the Swede was on target in all three of these wins.

With the German not currently available, Eberechi Eze performed that role at Spurs last Sunday, the pair working really well together as a combination, both netting twice. The hope is that Havertz will return soon, potentially in line to feature against former side Chelsea this weekend. Meantime, we all know how much Arteta values Martin Ødegaard, who interprets the number ten role very differently, so it'll be interesting to see if he comes straight back in and what impact that has on Gyökeres.