The obvious standout of the opening matchday of the 2025-26 Premier League season saw Manchester United host Arsenal. The match was billed as a clash between both clubs’ respective centre-forwards who had just been signed for major money. United signed Slovenian Benjamin Šeško from RB Leipzig for €76.5 million while Arsenal brought Swede Viktor Gyökeres to the Emirates Stadium from Sporting Lisbon for a fee of €65.8 million.
This highly-anticipated showdown got off to an anticlimactic start after it was revealed that unlike Gyökeres who was in the Gunners’ starting line-up, Šeško started the match on the bench. However, it was actually Arsenal’s Italian full-back Riccardo Calafiori who scored the opening goal of the match following - in what has become a common occurrence for Manchester United - an error by United goalkeeper Altay Bayındır who mishandled Declan Rice’s corner kick, allowing Calafiori to put it in from close range.
Despite having the bulk of the goalscoring chances and possession, United were never able to make full use of these advantages and remained a goal behind heading into halftime. After the break, Šeško replaced Mason Mount and thus made his Premier League debut shortly after Gyökeres was substituted; Gyökeres was replaced by Kai Havertz.
However, Šeško’s first Premier League match certainly didn’t go according to plan. Apart from attempting a header which ended up not even being close to the target, Šeško barely did anything of note in his half-hour or so of play as United, despite largely being in control of the match, couldn’t find a way to the back of the net and finally succumbed to a 1-0 loss.
On an individual level, however, Šeško’s opposite number fared even worse. Between the two of them, Gyökeres was by far the more hyped despite having been signed for the lower transfer fee of the two. Adding to the narrative of this match was the fact that at one point of the transfer window, the man from Stockholm arguably seemed to be more likely to sign for United. As such, this match could easily have been an opportunity for Gyökeres to send a clear statement to United: “this is what you’ve missed out on”.
However, Gyökeres barely contributed anything at all - he didn’t even attempt a single shot - before being substituted. United’s Dutch centre-back Matthijs de Ligt got the better of Gyökeres again and again. Gyökeres looked absolutely nothing like the centre-forward who utterly shredded defenses across Portugal for the past two years.
There’s no question that there’s a significant skill gap between the Portuguese and English top-flight leagues. Many players over the years who have dominated a weaker league have found themselves struggling after making a move to a club in one of Europe’s major football leagues. While one would assume that Gyökeres is too good a player for that to happen to him and of course, it’s only been one match, we’ve seen players come into one of the top leagues from a weaker one with plenty of hype before - only to never live up to said hype.
It should go without saying that if Arsenal are to make a serious push for a first Premier League title since 2004, the North Londoners will need Gyökeres to rediscover his peak form and sustain it. Last season, Arsenal scored 22 fewer league goals than they had the season before - and this relative lack of goalscoring output caused Arsenal to finish the 2024-25 Premier League with 74 points as opposed to 89 in 2023-24. A tally of 89 points would, in fact, have won them the league last season.
On the surface, Gyökeres appears to check every box as far as what Arsenal need in a centre-forward. In addition to goalscoring, Gyökeres has a blend of technical skill and athleticism that not many strikers can boast of; he’s even above average compared to other centre-forwards at creating goalscoring chances. However, the gap between the Premier League and the Primeira Liga coupled with the fact that there’s more pressure on him than there has been on any Arsenal signing in a long time might just cause him to be unable to fulfill the hype.
All of that being said, most would say that Viktor Gyökeres does have what it takes to become Arsenal’s next great striker. However, if he’s to do so, performances like the one he just had against Manchester United won’t cut it at all.
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