Arsenal go to Anfield on Sunday with their 16-year-old banned, Bukayo Saka injured and a striker debate that one scruffy goal at Fleetwood has only made louder.
Arsenal have won seven of their eight league games and are only off the top on goal difference, yet they still haven’t settled on a number nine. Kai Havertz hasn’t scored in 561 minutes across all competitions. Viktor Gyokeres, who got 21 last season, has one all season, and that came against a League Two side.
So Mikel Arteta’s pick for Sunday’s trip to Anfield is more than a line on a team sheet. Arsenal haven’t won a league game there since 2012, and the question hanging over the 4.30pm kick-off is a simple one: if the chance falls, who is putting it away?
We would start Gyokeres, narrowly, but neither option looks like the striker a title defence deserves.
Why has Arteta kept trusting Havertz?
Because in the opening weeks it worked. Havertz scored three times in Arsenal’s first four games, and Gyokeres didn’t start any of the first seven league matches, with Arteta preferring the German up front. That wasn’t an accident. Every manager has a favourite, and this is his.
We understand the appeal. Havertz links play, and he gives Arteta a forward who is part of the build-up rather than someone waiting on the end of it. What we struggle with is how differently the two are judged. Havertz gets credit for the work around the box while Gyokeres gets slated for much the same output.
The odd part is that managers usually lean on favourites because they feel dependable, and Havertz doesn’t really feel that way. You rarely know which version is turning up. At Fleetwood he headed wide late on and missed clear chances before tucking his penalty away in the shootout, and that spot-kick doesn’t stop the clock on those 561 minutes.
Kai Havertz or Viktor Gyokeres: has the Swede done enough?
He has done just enough to make the argument awkward. Gyokeres finally got his first league start of the season against Everton on 24 October, was credited with the assist for Ezri Konsa’s seventh-minute opener, and looked comfortable alongside Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke in a 2-0 win. That goal also ended a run of 12 matches without Arsenal scoring from a dead ball, penalties aside.
Three days later he levelled in the 50th minute at Fleetwood, his first goal of the campaign. It is hardly a hot streak, but it’s more than Havertz has managed since the opening weeks.
Arteta has been protective of him all the same. Asked about the striker’s confidence before the Nottingham Forest game, he said: “He’s three or four times in front of goal with no keeper, and the ball should arrive to him, and it doesn’t.” He added: “Scoring or not scoring changes the narrative.”
He isn’t wrong about that last bit. A man who scored 14 league goals in a title-winning season now carries a very different story, and the shirt at a club like this gets heavy quickly when the goals stop.
What will Anfield ask of Arsenal’s number nine?
Patience, then ruthlessness. Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool have won five in a row, and they beat Brighton 2-0 last weekend with just 36% of the ball. Expect them to let Arsenal have it, sit in, and wait for Alexander Isak, who has six goals in his last six Premier League games.
That should make Arsenal uneasy, because having the ball and not scoring is exactly how they went out of the cup. They had 26 shots and around 78% of possession against Fleetwood and scored once. Arteta’s own verdict that night was blunt: “When we create the volume of shots and chances we did, you have to score three, four or five.”
There is a defensive cushion, at least. Arsenal have conceded only five in eight league games, so one big finish could be worth a lot on Sunday. We can see them creating a chance or two. What we can’t promise is that anyone takes them.
The right wing may force the issue anyway. Saka is out with a quad injury, Max Dowman is banned, and Madueke was due to be assessed after Saturday’s session because of an ankle problem. If he doesn’t make it, Havertz or Christos Tzolis could be asked to fill in out there, which would at least get both strikers on the pitch.
There is also a shout for Mikel Merino as the makeshift answer through the middle. We would understand it as a one-off for one awkward afternoon. Stretch it to five or 10 games, though, and Gooners would soon tell you it isn’t enough either.
Is the real problem above Arteta’s head?
We think so. The summer chase for Vinicius Junior and Julian Alvarez ended with neither arriving, and the same worry about goals up front has simply rolled into a new season. Winning the league papered over it. Losing to Fleetwood tore the paper off.
Don’t bank on January fixing it, either. Atletico Madrid have reportedly told Arsenal that Alvarez will not leave mid-season, and Bournemouth are not expected to sell Eli Junior Kroupi, with his valuation said to be above £100m. An enquiry for a €2m Monza striker with eight Serie A goals tells you how the market looks from N5 right now.
Our view is that Havertz and Gyokeres are both useful squad players who were never meant to carry this on their own. The profile Arsenal are missing is the one Kroupi and Isak offer. And when the champions are fretting over a banned 16-year-old who wasn’t a certain starter, that says more about the squad planning than it does about the kid.
Quick answers on the Arsenal striker debate
Will Kai Havertz or Viktor Gyokeres start for Arsenal at Anfield?
We expect Viktor Gyokeres to keep his place after starting the 2-0 win over Everton, with Kai Havertz on the bench or used on the right if Noni Madueke is not fit.
How long has Kai Havertz gone without a goal?
Kai Havertz scored three times in Arsenal’s first four games but has not scored since, a run of 561 minutes in all competitions. His penalty in the Fleetwood shootout does not count towards that.
How many goals has Viktor Gyokeres scored this season?
One. Viktor Gyokeres scored his first of the season in the 50th minute at Fleetwood, after 21 goals in his first season at Arsenal, 14 of them in the league.
When is Liverpool vs Arsenal?
Liverpool vs Arsenal kicks off at 4.30pm GMT on Sunday 1 November 2026 at Anfield.
Havertz or Gyokeres at Anfield? Back the man who just scored
We would start Gyokeres, and we think Arteta will too. The Everton side moved Arsenal level with Manchester City on points, and dropping the striker straight after he has got off the mark would send a strange message to a player who has spent two months on the fringes.
Havertz still has a role to play. Off the bench against a tiring back line, or on the right if Madueke’s ankle gives way, he could yet decide this. But 561 minutes is 561 minutes, and form has to count for something at some point.
A draw at Anfield would hardly be a disaster for a side that hasn’t won there in 14 years. To finally end that run, though, Arsenal need one of these two to do what Isak has been doing for Liverpool. Sunday is as good a time as any to start.
