Alan Shearer tells Arsenal how to get a ‘shed load’ of goals out of Viktor Gyokeres

Alan Shearer has told Arsenal to get “early balls into the box” if they want to get the best out of Viktor Gyökeres after the Swede scored against Nottingham Forest.

Gyökeres scored the second of a 3-0 comfortable win against Ange Postecoglou’s Forest and while he has still yet to fully convince, the former Sporting striker is joint top in the goalscorer charts.

Shearer, a man who bagged a record 260 Premier League goals, said playing the ball in before defenders can regroup will allow him to score “a shed load of goals.”

“I think to get the best out of him he’s going to need early balls into the box,” Shearer said during a punditry stint for Premier League Productions.

“I highlighted at half time when they have too many touches perhaps, this [Eze’s assist] is a great example of not doing that.

“It’s a wonderful ball over the top but the hardest part is for the winger to put that on a plate for Gyökeres, first time ball, early ball, that’s exactly what he demands.

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“If Arsenal continue to do that… they still didn’t get the balance right as I said at half time, but I thought it was a little bit better in the second half when Calafiori whipped one or two early balls in.

“He’ll get a shed load of goals if they keep on getting balls into the box early.”

The scoresheet at the Emirates was made up entirely of new signings with Martin Zubimendi scoring either side of Gyökeres’ effort. Manager Mikel Arteta said he had been impressed with just how quickly players like Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze had settled in.

“The new ones that started, five of them today, I’m really impressed with them,” he said. “I think you can sense and feel that there are new relationships flourishing there that are going to give us different things. To become more unpredictable.

“Noni, I think he was exceptional as well. So we play a front three that we’ve never played before. Good exposure of them, in terms of the timings as well, exactly what they needed because they played a lot of minutes. And overall very happy.”

On Madueke in particular, Arteta said it took “courage” to ignore criticism from some sections of the Arsenal fans who did not want to sign the former Chelsea player.

“A lot of courage, that’s how I describe it. Obviously, a lot of quality, but a lot of courage,” he said.

“We were about to sign him, and there was that reaction around him. I spoke to him, and he was like, I can’t wait to put that shirt on and play for you guys. I said, well, let’s bring him.

“If I was convinced before, I’m more convinced now that he’s going to do it. And yeah, I think he has such a power, such a capacity to repeat efforts. Because to be able to do that physically, you have to have a different specimen, I think. And he’s certainly that.

“But he’s very skilful, very unpredictable, so willing to learn. And he brings joy. I look at him, and he’s always smiling; he’s always trying things. He gets one wrong, he goes again. And that’s what I love about the creative players, because you need that to be successful.”

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