Mikel Arteta paints the reality of Viktor Gyokeres' first season at Arsenal

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta talked about how things are slowly improving for Viktor Gyokeres at the club, while admitting there is work to be done.

Gyokeres did not start life at Arsenal in the best possible way, struggling with the demands of the league and how different it is to playing in Portugal.

There was also the case of adapting to not only the league, but also the style of play that this team has, and how his teammates play the game.

It has taken longer than anyone associated with Arsenal would have wanted, but things are improving. Slowly, but surely.

Mikel Arteta paints the reality of Viktor Gyokeres' first season at Arsenal

Arteta talked about how he has no doubts on the quality that Gyokeres has, and how his form has improved slightly.

He said: "Well, I think one thing leads to another. When you score the first one, or the performance is good, you have more time with your teammates, you understand the games, the opponents, the league better, everything helps.

"We know his qualities, he’s undoubtedly an incredible striker. We need to feed into his quality, we need to understand him better, he needs to understand the team and the league better, and I think we are on the right trajectory."

Gyokeres is definitely on the right trajectory, and he is improving every passing game. From not being involved in so many games despite playing the majority of those matches, to making a huge impact on the North London Derby and scoring the go-ahead goal, as well as the fourth, is a huge jump.

That is what Arsenal need to see more of from the Sweden international, and that is the quality that Gyokeres also expects from himself.

Arteta was also asked about whether he thinks Gyokeres has any self-doubt, to which he answered the way you would expect him to.

He said: "I don’t know, that’s a question for him. Obviously I know the demands that he’s put on himself, the expectations that he has to help the team.

"I’m confident because I ask, a lot of times, our defenders, when they have to train against our players, how do you feel about that? And that’s a really good way to understand the quality of a player or how it is to defend them."

Gyokeres is 28 years old. He has proven people wrong his entire life. The same people that are talking about how he will be a failure at Arsenal were saying the same thing about his stint at Coventry City. Obviously, this is a much bigger scale, but Gyokeres is also a much better player than he once was.

He is improving every passing game, and the best is certainly yet to come.