{"id":334084,"date":"2026-05-13T18:23:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=334084"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:23:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:53:02","slug":"wayne-rooney-names-arsenal-star-who-will-likely-be-major-factor-in-end-of-season-run-in-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/wayne-rooney-names-arsenal-star-who-will-likely-be-major-factor-in-end-of-season-run-in-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Rooney names Arsenal star who will likely be &#8216;major factor&#8217; in end-of-season run-in | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption>Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Wayne Rooney believes that Viktor Gyokeres\u2019 performances will likely be a \u2018major factor\u2019 in Arsenal\u2019s bid to finish their season with a historic double.<\/p>\n<p>Gyokeres was Arsenal\u2019s big-money signing last summer, joining from Sporting CP for \u00a364million in a bid so as to add more firepower to Mikel Arteta\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n<p>The Swede endured a sluggish begin to life on the Emirates, scoring just three goals in his first 11 matches before going 10 games with out a goal from open play.<\/p>\n<p>However the 27-year-old has proven his value towards the back end of the season, scoring a brace against Fulham and delivering a man-of-the-match display against Atletico Madrid within the Gunners\u2019 Champions League semi-final second leg.<\/p>\n<p>Those recent results have left Arsenal inside three wins of securing a primary league title in greater than 20 years, in addition to a first-ever Champions League crown.<\/p>\n<p>And Rooney believes that Gyokeres\u2019 all-around play will likely be of significant importance if Arsenal are to recover from the road in each competitions in the approaching weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019ve said this all season and I actually have been criticised for saying it, but I actually really like him,\u2019 Rooney told The Overlap EFL Fan Debate with <a href=\"https:\/\/skybet.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SkyBet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275037210.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28353570\" alt=\"West Ham United v Arsenal - Premier League\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Viktor Gyokeres has scored 21 goals across all competitions this season (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.metro.co.uk\/i\/html_modules\/2026\/05_MAY\/260511_PL_TITLE_ARS_MAN_NEW_V2\/index.html\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500px\" class=\"metro-iframe iframe-autoheight \" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" name=\"6a04742d704b5\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u2018What he brings to that Arsenal team is that he occupies defenders. He makes them work, he makes them defend, he runs the channels.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018And what we\u2019ve seen recently is that it\u2019s creating more room for [Eberechi] Eze and for [Bukayo] Saka \u2014 because if one, or each centre-backs need to go and canopy him after which the full-back has to cover round, whenever you switch the ball quickly, it creates a lot space for everybody just in behind him.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Over the previous couple of weeks he has been showing that much more and if Arsenal go on to win the league and the Champions League, he\u2019ll be a serious reason behind it, because that\u2019s where Arsenal have been short in the previous couple of years.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I do know he hasn\u2019t scored the goals Haaland has scored, but he has been really essential for that Arsenal team and he will likely be a significant factor in the event that they do win the 2 of them.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>For now, all eyes will likely be on Manchester City as they give the impression of being to drag inside two points of Arsenal with a win against Crystal Palace on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>But when Pep Guardiola\u2019s side drop points, then Arsenal know that a win against Burnley on Monday will see them crowned champions before the ultimate day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Follow Metro Sport for the newest news on <meta charset=\"utf-8\"><br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sportmetro\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Metro_Sport\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/metrosportuk\/\">Instagram<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Man Utd chiefs make final suggestion on next Man Utd manager<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Casemiro makes Arsenal Premier League title claim with Real Madrid comparison<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Callum Wilson breaks silence on disallowed goal against Arsenal<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney (Picture: Getty) Wayne Rooney believes that Viktor Gyokeres\u2019 performances will likely be a \u2018major factor\u2019 in Arsenal\u2019s bid to finish their season with a historic double. Gyokeres was Arsenal\u2019s big-money signing last summer, joining from Sporting CP for \u00a364million in a bid so as to add more firepower to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[2605,51670,12557,5479,944,3820,13813,15046,795,9186],"class_list":["post-334084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-arsenal","tag-endofseason","tag-factor","tag-football","tag-major","tag-names","tag-rooney","tag-runin","tag-star","tag-wayne"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334084"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334087,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334084\/revisions\/334087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}