Mikel Arteta maintains Viktor Gyokeres makes Arsenal “a much better team” after his double helped the Gunners to a thumping 4-0 Champions League win over Atletico Madrid.
The Swedish striker snapped a seven-game goalscoring drought with a brace inside three minutes at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.
Gabriel opened the scoring for the home side after 57 minutes, with Gabriel Martinelli extending Arsenal’s advantage seven minutes later before Gyokeres’ quickfire double.
Speaking on the eve of Tuesday’s group fixture under the lights, Mikel Merino insisted it was only a matter of time before Gyokeres ended his goal drought, and the Sweden international’s team-mates were visibly delighted to see him score.
And manager Arteta said: “Viktor deserved it because everything that we were seeing in terms of what he was bringing to the team and how much he was helping the team in many areas, apart from scoring goals in the last few weeks, there was no debate about that.
“It was about keeping that belief in himself, that emotional state that he can enjoy and play freely. He had a big smile on his face. I look at his team-mates as well, they are all so happy for him because he fully deserved it.
“He makes us a much better team. We’ve become much more unpredictable. He’s so physical and the way he presses the ball, and holds the ball, that’s phenomenal.
“And then the icing on the cake is the goals. He’s scored two very different ones today, and hopefully he starts to get some momentum now and goes on a good run.”
Arsenal, who moved to the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 win at Fulham on Saturday, join defending champions Paris St Germain and last season’s beaten finalists Inter Milan on nine points from the nine available and on course for the knockout rounds.
Speaking to CBS, Gyokeres said: “We want to win trophies, that’s our desire and that’s the most important thing and of course I want to contribute and score goals.
“To score four and keep a clean sheet again is very good. We always keep going. We do the things right when we defend and when we get the chances we are extremely strong in taking those.
“Both my goals were great. I try to do my best all the time and work hard, contribute with different stuff and the goals would have come sooner or later.”
Atletico had scored seven goals in their opening two Champions League matches but rarely looked like threatening Arsenal’s back line as Arteta’s men recorded a third clean sheet in as many games in Europe and a fourth in a row in all competitions.
And manager Diego Simeone conceded: “It is not down to bad luck but mistakes, so they made the most of our mistakes, took their chances and all their big chances turned into goals.
“They were the better team tonight so we have to congratulate Arsenal and accept that.”
