Gary Lineker singles out Arsenal star that could cost them the Premier League title

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Gary Lineker believes Viktor Gyokeres could cost Arsenal the Premier League title this season. The 27-year-old, who fired Sporting CP to the Portuguese title last season with 39 goals, joined the Gunners for an initial £55m during the summer transfer window .

He became Mikel Arteta’s sixth summer signing following the arrivals of Cristhian Mosquera, Martin Zubimendi, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Christian Norgaard and Noni Madueke. But despite Gyokeres’ arrival being met with much fanfare, he has so far only managed to score three times in 11 appearances.

And even though the Gunners are three points clear at the top of the table following a 1-0 win over Fulham on Saturday evening, Lineker believes Gyokeres needs to 'start scoring' if Arsenal are to realise their ambitions this season.

“I think for Arsenal to really realise their ambitions, he’s going to have to start scoring a lot of goals,” he told The Rest is Football podcast . “I think it’s a big spell coming up for him over the next few games.”

On Gyokeres, former Newcastle United forward Alan Shearer then continued: “I think Arsenal paid too much for him. I would say the same with Benjamin Sesko at Manchester United .

“He’s definitely going to have to score more goals. But I do think he brings something to the Arsenal team. One of his positives is that he runs in behind, which then will help create space for others to exploit.

“But there’s no doubt he’s going to have to improve his numbers with the goals because, as we said it last season, what Arsenal have needed, cried out for, is a goalscorer.

“He’s only got three up to now, but they are looking really impressive as a team and I think he has added something different to the team.

“Instead of coming short like Kai Havertz might or Mikel Merino might have, he offers something going the other way which then opens up a little bit of space.”

But Lineker’s view is a U-turn on what he said about the forward at the start of this month. The former Match of the Day host claimed that Gyokeres was bound to start scoring following Bukayo Saka’s return to action.

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“I also think that even though he’s not banged loads of goals in yet, but he’s got his fair share, Gyokeres, I think he gives them something different," he said.

“He gives them a threat behind, which creates more space for the midfield and even the wide players, and he’s aggressive with his running and he likes to spin and he attacks the space in the box.

“The goals will come for him because with the service that I think he’ll inevitably get, particularly now Saka is back in the mix and looks like his old self after his injury.

“So I think it’s quite promising for Arsenal . I think we might be in this season for a really good title race.”

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