Mikel Arteta hails striker after his double helps Arsenal beat Sunderland to extend lead to nine points
It’s not been an easy debut season at Arsenal for Viktor Gyokeres, but he seems to be hitting form at the right moment.
The Gunners’ title charge continues to go to plan as they moved an ominous nine points clear of their rivals thanks to their 3-0 home win over Sunderland, as Aston Villa lost more ground with a 1-1 draw at AFC Bournemouth.
For Gyokeres, it was one of his best days yet in an Arsenal shirt.
In just 30 minutes on the pitch as a second-half substitute for Gabriel Jesus, he bagged his second Premier League brace – and his first league goals at Emirates Stadium since his home debut in August’s 5-0 thrashing of Leeds United.
The Swede is hitting his stride at just the right time, and no Premier League player has managed more goals in all competitions this calendar year than his six.
“With Viktor, when you look at him, it’s very difficult to understand his emotions, because he looks straight at you and you don’t really know,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. “But he doesn’t seem too affected by the real highs or the lows. And that’s what we need, is stability.
“He’s very demanding of himself. He’s constantly trying to improve and that’s really, really good.
“Confidence is the magic word. When you feel confident, when you feel important, when you feel at your best, that’s when you can really take your game to the highest level.
“We are really behind him in every moment to try to help him, to try to support him. And he is delivering, and he’s in a really good moment now.”
Six of Gyokeres’s eight league goals have come against promoted teams. After scoring in back-to-back league games for the first time, he is now only two goals away from double figures in the Premier League, more than Havertz managed as leading scorer last season, with nine goals.
Perhaps it is the relentless schedule that is working to his advantage – the Gunners have already played 11 games in 2026. “It’s quite easy when you have a game every other day, it feels like,” he said. “You have a short amount of time to recover and prepare for the next one. It’s easy not to think about anything else.”
Worryingly for their rivals, the previous time Arsenal held a lead of nine points or more was 2003/04, when Arsene Wenger’s iconic “Invincibles” topped the table by nine, 10 and 11 points at various stages of the campaign en route to becoming unbeatable champions.
Nonetheless, Saturday’s victory served as a reminder of how much work Arteta’s side still have to do if they’re to get over the line and end Arsenal’s 22-year wait for Premier League supremacy. These were a harder-fought three points than the comfortable-looking scoreline might suggest, as Sunderland dug in with the same resilience which earned them a 2-2 draw in November’s reverse meeting in the North East.
The hosts were sent on their way by Martin Zubimendi, whose sumptuous outside-of-the-boot goal shortly before half-time means he’s now scored six goals in 34 appearances for Arsenal, as many as he did in his final two seasons at previous club Real Sociedad.
Arteta spoke last month about “unlocking” Zubimendi’s threat in the final third, and with three goals in his last seven outings in all competitions, the Spaniard is proving he’s a defensive midfielder with a potent attacking edge – potentially a crucial difference-maker in these final months of the campaign as Arsenal continue to compete on four fronts.
Equally pleasing to Arteta must be the burgeoning link-up between Kai Havertz and Gyokeres. Havertz had been touted to dislodge Arsenal’s big-money summer signing from the team on his return from injury, but the pair are showing encouraging signs of being complementary to one another rather than interchangeable.
Havertz set up Gyokeres for the Gunners’ opener in last month’s UEFA Champions League league phase-concluding victory over Kairat Almaty, and he turned provider for the same team-mate again on Saturday afternoon as Arsenal notched a crucial second goal and effectively ended the threat of a Sunderland revival.
Watch: Arsenal v Sunderland highlights
The result was also Arsenal’s third straight win to nil in league and cup – which saw David Raya equal his 2024/25 Golden Glove-winning total of 13 Premier League clean sheets.
The matches keep coming thick and fast for Arsenal, though the coming days could be a test of their nerves, with title rivals Manchester City playing twice – away to Liverpool on Sunday then at home to Fulham on Wednesday – before the Gunners are next in action at Brentford on Thursday.
Meanwhile, more dropped points for Villa leave them nine adrift of the leaders. As anticipated, Unai Emery’s side are feeling the absence of key midfield trio John McGinn, Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara, and they’ve now gone two games without a win for the first time since September, having lost 1-0 at home to Brentford in their previous outing.
Next up for Villa, who remain third in the table, is a home clash with Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday.