Viktor Gyökeres matches Arsenal legends with crucial double against Fulham

If they weren't already, Arsenal supporters are seriously dreaming of glory now. Saturday's 3-0 thumping of Fulham, followed by Manchester City's draw at Everton on Monday, means the Gunners' destiny is back in their own hands, and their hands alone. Beat West Ham United, Burnley and then Crystal Palace and Mikel Arteta's team will be Premier League champions.

Before then, a place in the Champions League Final is up for grabs too. Last Wednesday's 1-1 draw at the Metropolitano means it is winner takes all when Atlético Madrid visit North London on Tuesday. Across these last two matches, Viktor Gyökeres has really stepped up and come to the fore.

The Swedish striker emphatically converted his spot kick in the Spanish capital, before scoring twice against Fulham, as well as setting up Bukayo Saka's thunderous strike too. That was, unquestionably, Gyökeres' best performance in an Arsenal shirt to date.

Despite being widely criticised and often much-maligned, he now has 21 goals to his name this season, which certainly is not a bad return. This makes Gyökeres just the 13th Arsenal player to surpass 20 goals during his debut campaign at the club, matching numerous bona fide club legends in the process.

Arsenal players to score 20+ goals during their debut season

Note: Statistics courtesy of Tom Ede.

Gyökeres has become the first Arsenal player since Alexis Sánchez 11 years ago to reach the 20 goal mark during his debut campaign in North London. In fact, he is just the fourth man to do so since the early-80s, and the other two turned out to be pretty good.

Ian Wright scored 26 times after arriving from Crystal Palace in 1991, going on to net 185 times for the club, breaking Cliff Bastin's record by bagging a hat-trick against Bolton Wanderers in 1997. Well, he held that record for less than a decade, because Thierry Henry would soon come along. The Frenchman scored 26 goals during his first campaign at Highbury, going on to shatter Wright's record, departing for Barcelona on 226, before returning to score twice more in 2012.

Overall, four players on this list would go on to score more than 100 times for Arsenal, namely Wright and Henry, as well as David Jack in the late-20s and Joe Baker in the early-60s. So, will Gyökeres manage that? Well, only time will tell, with many supporters frustrated by the Swede's first touch and link up play throughout the campaign.

Nevertheless, as epitomised by his opener at the weekend, if you give Gyökeres an opportunity in the penalty area, chances are he will take it. There are also signs that his all-round game is improving too. The assist he produced for Saka's strike on Saturday would simply not have happened earlier in the campaign. So, how important will he be with four or, hopefully, five games remaining?

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