Paul Scholes will not be convinced by one Arsenal star’s quality, but feels the Gunners have a player he would like to call a teammate.
Mikel Arteta’s side is flying high at the highest of the Premier League table, having fun with a morale-boosting 4-1 win over rivals Spurs on Sunday after recent draws against Brentford and Wolves.
The victory at Tottenham got here because of braces from Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres, with the latter taking his tally for the season to fifteen goals.
The summer signing from Sporting had a slow begin to life with the Gunners, but now has 10 Premier League goals to his name and 15 in all competitions.
Scholes still doesn’t see a striker of elite quality in the previous Coventry City man, but reckons his Arsenal teammates will likely be delighted to play alongside him because of his workrate.
‘I believe you’d like to play with him, he works his b******s off, he occupies them [defenders],’ Scholes said on The Good, The Bad and The Football.
‘Has he got the standard of a [Ruud] Van Nistelrooy or an Andy Cole, these sort of people? Probably not, but you’re pleased for him yesterday.’
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Scholes had praise for the Swede, but couldn’t resist a dig at each Tottenham and Arsenal in his assessment.
‘He was probably playing against probably the most disorganised defence you’ve ever seen, that’ll help him,’ said the Manchester United legend.
‘Arsenal do struggle against a team that may just sit back and sit back and get in shape, Arsenal struggle big time.’
Nicky Butt also accepted that Gyokeres has had criticism for his level of quality, especially in comparison with great Arsenal strikers of the past, but showed his ability with the 2 finishes he produced against Spurs.
‘He’s had a variety of crap and a variety of pressure on him,’ said the previous England midfielder. ‘He will need to have had a load of stick off Arsenal fans about forwards, the forwards they’ve had, and searching at him, his two finishes yesterday, he hit them as clean as a whistle.’
Eze echoed Scholes’ thoughts on Gyokeres’ workrate, saying after the win on Sunday: ‘He helps the team, not only along with his goals but the trouble he puts in. It gets players like me in one of the best positions and it helps rather a lot. He’s got his two goals today which he deserves.’
Gary Neville was also hugely impressed by the Sweden international, telling Sky Sports: ‘I believed it was his best moment of the season.
‘Not simply because he scored two in a game against the largest rivals and had an exquisite celebration over there with the Arsenal fans, but because his general performance from start to complete is what you’ll expect from him.’
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