Viktor Gyokeres may have scored twice against Tottenham – but he was made to look good in Arsenal’s thumping victory.
That’s the view of ex-Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor, who has claimed anyone would shine against Spurs centre-back Radu Dragusin.
5
Gyokeres put in a man of the match display in the recent north London derby – banging in a brilliant second half double to help seal a 4-1 win.
It has brought his tally to 15 goals in all competitions this season, with ten of his strikes coming in the Premier League.
Only Erling Haaland, Igor Thiago, Antoine Semenyo and Joao Pedro have found the back of the net more times in the top-flight than Gyokeres.
And no Premier League player has banged in more than the 27-year-old’s eight goals scored in 2026.
The former Sporting Lisbon centre-forward has been subject to ridicule from fans and pundits following his arrival last summer in a deal rising to £63.7million.
But despite appearing to turn a corner in recent weeks – with Gooners hoping his Spurs showing is just the start – Agbonlahor has been quick to tell Arsenal supporters not to get ahead of themselves.
Taking the Vik
Appearing on the Sports Breakfast show, the ex-England international credited Gyokeres on an impressive performance, but insisted he was up against a low-quality opponent.
He said: “I thought Gyokeres was very good, but what I will say is, me and Ally [McCoist] would look very good against Dragusin.
“I’m not being funny, but he’s a terrible defender, and Gyokeres, holding the ball up well, took his goals very well, but can we see it week in, week out now?”
It was a view shared by talkSPORT presenter Olivia Buzaglo, who stressed the player predominantly only scores against relegation-threatened teams.
5
5
She remarked: “Exactly, when you look at the calibre of teams he scored against, and listen, the north London derby was way bigger than we all thought because of what happened against Wolves [a 2-2 draw].
“However, in isolation, Spurs are 17th in the table for a reason, right?
“The teams he scored against are Leeds, Burnley, Sunderland, Spurs, I now want to see it in the Manchester City game in April.
“I want to see it in the League Cup final in March.”
Interjecting, Rangers legend McCoist was quick to defend Gyokeres, stressing people can’t move the goalposts in criticising the player for scoring – when they bashed him for large periods of the season for not doing so.
He stated: “Everybody calm down, right? He’s now started scoring goals, ‘We’re not happy with him scoring goals, we want him to score goals against better teams’.
5
5
“Is that where we are? I think he’s doing absolutely fine.”
McCoist continued: “I’ve got the stats, I think his goal scoring ratio so far is more than acceptable, Gyokeres.
“And he’s a bit like [Benjamin] Sesko, I think there’s improvement in him.
“I think he’ll continue to improve – and I don’t think he’ll start every game under [Mikel] Arteta.”
The Scotsman concluded by saying: “I just thought his goals aside, I just thought generally his movement and his game intelligence was a lot better.”
Gyokeres will be hoping a similar display in next Sunday’s London derby with Chelsea at the Emirates – an opponent he has already scored against at Stamford Bridge earlier this term.