Why I'm happy Arsenal is choosing Viktor Gyökeres over Benjamin Sesko

Comparing Viktor Gyökeres to Benjamin Sesko

Arsenal’s long awaited search for a striker finally seems to be over with Viktor Gyökeres likely to make the move from Sporting CP.

image via Fabrizio Romano on X

The 27 year old has had a long journey to get to footballs elite. He originally started out at Brighton, but spent a number of years on loan before becoming a permanent signing for Coventry City.

image via transfermarkt.com

At Coventry City he scored 38 goals over his two season, which earned him a move to Sporting where he completely exploded.

Nobody over the course of the last two seasons has scored more goals in their own domestic league than Gyökeres.

He’s a proven goalscorer and a ruthless finisher. He’s over performed his expected goals for three straight seasons, which is not a sign of massive regression, but one of a proven goalscorer.

That is what Arsenal needs right now. Benjamin Sesko may very well have more potential than Gyökeres. He’s younger and has been playing at a high level for a number of years.

However, if RB Leipzig aren’t budging from their price of 90 million Euros and Gyökeres is available for a cheaper price, he’s the better option.

He’s also the better option for Arsenal tactically.

That is because he’s willing to do the dirty work. He’s an old school number nine and everytime I watch highlights of him there is only one player that keeps coming to mind: Harry Kane.

A forward who may not be the fastest, but is technically gifted, can win duels, hold up play, and play with his back to goal. No matter what you think of Sesko in the future, he’s not that type of striker right now.

Sesko in RB Leipzig’s system was aided by play alongside Loïs Openda and the system was mainly transitional. Of course, Leipzig struggled to try and become a build up team, but Sesko rarely played in a position by himself up top and asked to either hold up play or create space for others.

At 22, he’s not ready for the physicality of Premier League defenders. Even though Gyökeres hasn’t played in one of Europe’s top five leagues for a full season, he’s proven he can do it in the Champions League.

He can take defenders one 1 v 1 using his physicality to straight knock them to the ground.

He also is a huge presence in the box and most of his shots come from where you want a striker taking them: right in the center of the box.

Viktor Gyökeres

Benjamin Sesko

images via FotMob

Now there are some question marks with Gyökeres. Most of his goals in Portugal came against teams in the bottom of the table and the strength of that league does not even come close to the Premier League.

His aerial duel win rate was very low in the Champions League. It was 27% to be exact. That is concerning for when Arsenal decides to play direct against aggressive high pressing teams, but he is certainly an upgrade to Kai Havertz in that department.

Even with those two weaknesses, Gyökeres is not going to be asked to scored 30 goals. Arsenal has plenty of offensive weapons that can put the ball in the back of the net and are the best set piece team in the Premier League.

Gyökeres’ numbers in Portugal are an anomaly and it wouldn’t be fair to compare his numbers there with Sesko’s in the Bundesliga.

However, both played in the Champions League this past season and Gyökeres blew him out of the water when you look into the data.

Again this is not to say in five years that Sesko is not going to be better than Gyökeres because he has world class potential. But, Arsenal are not in the position right now to spend 90 million euros on potential.

The Bundesliga is a much less physical league than the Premier League and Sesko already struggled against top level centerbacks there, which doesn’t translate well to the most difficult league in the world.

Even when you simply isolate Sesko’s numbers over the last year compared to other strikers in Europe’s top five leagues, he doesn’t rate highly at all in a lot of key categories.

If he can’t put up dominant numbers in the Bundesliga how on earth can we expect him to walk into Arsenal and score 20+ goals in the best league in the world?

Viktor Gyökeres is 27 years old and in his prime with so much talent around him to allow him to flourish. Even though he is five years older than Sesko, he has a higher transfer value on transfermarkt.com and is going to cost way less.

Arsenal have already secured the services of Martin Zubimendi to play as a single pivot number six, which allows Declan Rice to play as a left sided number eight and Odegaard can play as a natural number 10 instead of having to drop deep. Arsenal is even in the market to potentially at Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace.

image via Fabrizio Romano on X

Adding a prolific finisher to this is what Arsenal needs. They don’t need a striker who may be a ruthless finisher in a couple years, they need one now and Gyökeres is the best option on the market.