{"id":79172,"date":"2025-08-13T08:10:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T08:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/79172\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T08:10:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T08:10:21","slug":"theo-walcott-says-viktor-gyokeres-is-better-than-olivier-giroud-in-two-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/79172\/","title":{"rendered":"Theo Walcott says Viktor Gyokeres is better than Olivier Giroud in two areas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Arsenal cult hero Theo Walcott has spoken about how Viktor Gyokeres could play a similar role to Olivier Giroud in Mikel Arteta\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal signed Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting CP late in July for around \u00a364million and he made his debut in the 3-2 defeat to Villarreal.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners finally have themselves a brand new No. 9 after being without an out-and-out forward for quite a while, and much is expected of Gyokeres this season.<\/p>\n<p>Theo Walcott also explained what traits Gyokeres has in his locker that elevates him above Giroud.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"766\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2227140416-1024x766.jpg\" alt=\"Arsenal Unveil New Signing Viktor Gyokeres\" class=\"wp-image-154453\" \/>Photo by Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC via Getty ImagesTheo Walcott says Viktor Gyokeres is faster and \u2018probably stronger\u2019 than Olivier Giroud<\/p>\n<p>Walcott, speaking on The Overlap US, said Bukayo Saka now finally has a foil in the Arsenal front line, much like he did in Giroud.<\/p>\n<p>The former Gunners, Southampton and Everton man also said Gyokeres is quicker and \u201cprobably stronger\u201d than Giroud.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe dynamic is completely different now,\u201d said Walcott. \u201cSaka has someone he can bounce the ball off. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy player was Giroud. I used to always love to bounce the ball off him. One, twos, following.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was probably an underrated Arsenal forward and that\u2019s a similar kind of player they\u2019ve got. And Giroud was a very good player. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Gyokeres is quicker, he\u2019s probably stronger. He\u2019s not as good-looking as Giroud, I\u2019ve got to say. But look, his celebration\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arsenalinsider.com\/match-reports\/arsenal-fans-say-mikel-arteta-now-has-a-revolutionary-weapon-even-manchester-united-fans-are-scared\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Arsenal fans say Mikel Arteta now has a \u2018revolutionary\u2019 weapon, even Manchester United fans are scared<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Martin Keown likened Viktor Gyokeres to current Premier League striker<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal legend Martin Keown previously likened Gyokeres to one of the Premier League\u2019s most in-form strikers.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2024, Gyokeres scored the opener in Sporting\u2019s 2-0 win over Lille in the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>Keown told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/football\/transfers\/2025-2026\/viktor-gyokeres-arsenal-signing-sporting-alexis-sanchez-darwin-nunez-erling-haaland-big-money-transfers_sto23201907\/story.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">TNT Sports<\/a>: \u201cHe\u2019s turned and spun on that one and put it in the back of the net, who does that remind you of? Bit of a [Erling] Haaland about him there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Rio Ferdinand said: \u201cI don\u2019t know how he was allowed out of England.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a beast of a human, he\u2019s just developed into a really outstanding player and I\u2019m really interested to see how he develops in the next coming year or two.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal cult hero Theo Walcott has spoken about how Viktor Gyokeres could play a similar role to Olivier&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[43579,403,99,55782,5763],"class_list":["post-79172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-olivier-giroud","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-theo-walcott","tag-viktor-gyokeres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}