Mikel Arteta makes Viktor Gyokeres claim after Arsenal’s draw with Liverpool | Football

Mikel Arteta defended Viktor Gyokeres after his subdued performance against Liverpool and insisted the Arsenal summer signing is ‘getting better’.

Gyokeres had just seven touches of the ball in Thursday’s Premier League clash against Liverpool before being subbed off with half an hour remaining.

Many Arsenal fans were disappointed by Gyokeres’ contribution, taking to social media to express their displeasure in a player who cost the Gunners £64m.

It was hoped Gyokeres would solve Arsenal’s No. 9 issues and propel the club to a long-awaited Premier League title.

But while Arteta’s side are indeed on course for their first league title since 2004, that has little to do with Gyokeres, who has scored only five goals in 18 league games and gone 11 matches without a goal from open play.

Ex-Manchester United and England defender Gary Neville was hugely critical of Gyokeres’ performance against Liverpool but Arteta defended his summer recruit.

‘He was in great positions,’ Arteta said after the goalless draw at the Emirates Stadium. ‘Sometimes the ball didn’t arrive.

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‘As I said, there were situations where we got into the six-yard box that are normally a goal or you pick somebody out to score a goal.

‘We didn’t do that and that’s the thing that today, we have to improve, and other things in the second half that are probably not at the standards we are used to.’

Asked if he felt Gyokeres was ‘getting better’, Arteta simply responded: ‘Yes.’

Arsenal were hoping to open up an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League after Manchester City dropped more points against Brighton on Wednesday night.

But Arteta’s side flattered to deceive against the defending champions and were second-best for much of the second half.

‘Well, we’re disappointed because we wanted to win the game,’ Arteta added.

‘But I think overall, with the domination and the situations that we created in the first half, we should have come out of that in a winning position, and that’s the margins in this game.

‘You’re not going to dominate the whole game against the champions, because they are a really good side.

‘But when we have them there and created a situation where we’re having the best spaces to put the ball, find somebody and put the ball in the back of the net, and we didn’t do it.

‘Then in the second half, we were very inconsistent with the ball, losing balls that were very unusual for us.

‘I don’t know if they were the conditions, the fatigue, whatever it is – and then we struggled more to have the right structure and be in distances that we can press them.

‘If you cannot win it, at least we get a point, and I think the boys deserve a massive praise for what they’ve done in this Christmas period to get the results and the performances consistently in the manner that we’ve done it to come out from this period in a really strong position.’

Arsenal put their Premier League title charge on hold this weekend when they face Portsmouth in the third round of the FA Cup.

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