Havertz or Gyokeres? Arteta’s Choice Up Front Deserves a Closer Look

Viktor Gyokeres spent the international break doing what Arsenal signed him to do. He scored in all four of Sweden's Nations League games and became the only player to score in seven straight Nations League matches. Then he came back to London and went back to the bench.

He still hasn't started a Premier League game this season, and he hasn't scored for Arsenal in any competition. Kai Havertz is Mikel Arteta's first choice when he's fit, and that has been true since August.

So what is Arteta seeing that the rest of us aren't?

The numbers that make it hard to understand

Gyokeres scored 21 goals in 55 games last season, including 14 in the league, as Arsenal won the title. That came after 97 goals in two seasons at Sporting. He has 10 goals for Sweden in 2026 alone.

This season at Arsenal he has mostly had cameos. He got 15 minutes in the Community Shield, 12 against Chelsea and 17 at Brighton, plus starts against Napoli in the Champions League and Ipswich in the Carabao Cup.

Havertz started the first four league games and scored twice. Then came the 3-0 loss at Brighton, where he missed the best chance of the afternoon and Arsenal failed to score for the first time this season.

The case Arteta is making

To be fair to the manager, he isn't picking Havertz for his goals. Sports Mole's breakdown lays out what Arteta wants from his No. 9: dropping deep to open space for Saka and Odegaard, winning the ball in the air, and setting the press based on how the other team builds out. Arteta has called Havertz one of the smartest players he has, someone who makes everyone around him better.

That work doesn't show up in the goals column, but it shapes how the whole team plays.

There's also a tactical point about Sweden. Graham Potter plays two up front, with Gyokeres alongside Isak or another forward. Arsenal play with one striker and a No. 10 behind him. Scoring freely in one system doesn't guarantee the same in the other.

Where we think it gets harder to defend

Tactical value is easiest to defend when the team is scoring. Arsenal have been grinding. In today's 1-0 win at Forest, Arsenal didn't put a shot on target until Noni Madueke's deflected winner in the 80th minute.

Gyokeres came off the bench in that game, and afterward Arteta said he really changed the game. Two days earlier, Arteta said Gyokeres had been unlucky, with several chances where the ball should have reached him and didn't.

"Scoring or not scoring changes the narrative." Mikel Arteta

That cuts both ways. A striker in the form of his life for his country is a weapon. Leaving that weapon on the bench in games where Arsenal can't find a shot on target is the part we find hard to understand.

What to watch

Havertz picked up a muscle injury with Germany during the break. [TODO: confirm Havertz's fitness and whether he started today at Forest]

Arsenal sit second, three points behind Manchester City, and travel to Bayern Munich on Wednesday. If Gyokeres gets a start there, we'll find out quickly whether the Sweden form travels. I can't say either Gyokeres or Havertz gives me confidence, but at some point We have to consider that Havertz isn't our starting forward.

Over to you

• Is Arteta right that Havertz's all-round game matters more than a pure goalscorer?
• Would you try both of them together, the way Sweden uses Gyokeres?
• Who starts in Munich?

COYG.