Viktor Gyokeres proves doubters wrong with brilliant opening goal for Arsenal as Gunners run riot to lift Emirates Cup

Viktor Gyokeres finally opened his Arsenal account to help his side lift the Emirates Cup as they ran out 3-0 winners against Athletic Bilbao. The Gunners completed the £63.7million signing of the striker from Sporting Lisbon towards the end of July – ending an agonisingly long wait for supporters to sign an out-and-out no. 9. Gyokeres will hope this is the first of many goals for ArsenalAFP GettyHe helped his new side lift the Emirates Cup in the Gunners’ final pre-season game[/caption] Gyokeres made his debut for club in their 1-0 defeat to north London rivals Tottenham in Hong Kong. He also failed to net against Villarreal during the week, but made it third time lucky on Saturday with the visit of Athletic Bilbao. The 27-year-old netted the opener in their final pre-season match of the summer with a thumping header from fellow summer signing Martin Zubimendi’s cross. Gyokeres scored just four times with his head for Sporting across 102 appearances in Portugal – leading to jibes from rival supporters that Arsenal’s new frontman can’t net headers. However, he proved the doubters wrong with an excellent first goal, with the Gunners hoping they can fully utilise his aerial ability this season. Bukayo Saka netted just moments later to put the Gunners 2-0 ahead at half-time before Kai Havertz added a third late on, before they won 6-5 in a penalty shootout. The fixture has come just over a week until they open their Premier League campaign with a trip to Manchester United. It brings them the opportunity to make an excellent start to what they hope will be another title charge. And should Gyokeres be firing on all cylinders throughout the season, then Arsenal could end their 21-year wait for the title. He netted 97 times across two seasons for Sporting, although the Premier League will come as a much tougher test. The forward’s celebration made its debut at the Emirates StadiumGetty Just how good is Gyokeres? Gyokeres’ former Coventry City teammate Ben Sheaf joined talkSPORT and revealed what Arsenal can expect from the striker. “Playing with Vik and knowing him as a person, I think he’ll relish the challenge. He definitely has the attributes to make an impact there. “He brings Arsenal something that they might not quite have at the moment in the squad they’ve got. I’d definitely back him to make an impact. “They’ve been crying out for a real number nine. Havertz has done a fantastic job up there, but he’s a different profile to Vik. “He’s that real number nine. Leading the line, hungry to score goals, and a real goal scorer. “I think it’s something that they’ve probably been crying out for. The fans have definitely been crying out for that for the last year or so. Gyokeres has made a quick impression at his new clubGetty “He can finish off both feet. When he was here, he’d always finish training and go and absolutely smash balls. “He’d want to just finish, finish, finish always after training. He was very relentless, very driven and took a lot of his frustration out on the ball in finishing drills. “He was obviously great for us and you could say he was ready to move on and he was always looking to do bigger and better things.”

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Viktor Gyokeres proves doubters wrong with brilliant opening goal for Arsenal as Gunners run riot to lift Emirates Cup

Viktor Gyokeres finally opened his Arsenal account to help his side lift the Emirates Cup as they ran out 3-0 winners against Athletic Bilbao.

The Gunners completed the £63.7million signing of the striker from Sporting Lisbon towards the end of July – ending an agonisingly long wait for supporters to sign an out-and-out no. 9.

Gyokeres will hope this is the first of many goals for Arsenal

He helped his new side lift the Emirates Cup in the Gunners’ final pre-season game[/caption]

Gyokeres made his debut for club in their 1-0 defeat to north London rivals Tottenham in Hong Kong.

He also failed to net against Villarreal during the week, but made it third time lucky on Saturday with the visit of Athletic Bilbao.

The 27-year-old netted the opener in their final pre-season match of the summer with a thumping header from fellow summer signing Martin Zubimendi’s cross.

Gyokeres scored just four times with his head for Sporting across 102 appearances in Portugal – leading to jibes from rival supporters that Arsenal’s new frontman can’t net headers.

However, he proved the doubters wrong with an excellent first goal, with the Gunners hoping they can fully utilise his aerial ability this season.

Bukayo Saka netted just moments later to put the Gunners 2-0 ahead at half-time before Kai Havertz added a third late on, before they won 6-5 in a penalty shootout.

The fixture has come just over a week until they open their Premier League campaign with a trip to Manchester United.

It brings them the opportunity to make an excellent start to what they hope will be another title charge.

And should Gyokeres be firing on all cylinders throughout the season, then Arsenal could end their 21-year wait for the title.

He netted 97 times across two seasons for Sporting, although the Premier League will come as a much tougher test.

The forward’s celebration made its debut at the Emirates Stadium

Just how good is Gyokeres?

Gyokeres’ former Coventry City teammate Ben Sheaf joined talkSPORT and revealed what Arsenal can expect from the striker.

“Playing with Vik and knowing him as a person, I think he’ll relish the challenge. He definitely has the attributes to make an impact there.

“He brings Arsenal something that they might not quite have at the moment in the squad they’ve got. I’d definitely back him to make an impact.

“They’ve been crying out for a real number nine. Havertz has done a fantastic job up there, but he’s a different profile to Vik.

“He’s that real number nine. Leading the line, hungry to score goals, and a real goal scorer.

“I think it’s something that they’ve probably been crying out for. The fans have definitely been crying out for that for the last year or so.

Gyokeres has made a quick impression at his new club

“He can finish off both feet. When he was here, he’d always finish training and go and absolutely smash balls.

“He’d want to just finish, finish, finish always after training. He was very relentless, very driven and took a lot of his frustration out on the ball in finishing drills.

“He was obviously great for us and you could say he was ready to move on and he was always looking to do bigger and better things.”