On 26th July 2025, Arsenal announced they had finally landed the signature of Swedish sharpshooter Viktor Gyökeres. The 27-year-old was prised away from Sporting CP for a fee of around £55 million, which could reportedly rise to close to £64 million. The player scored a very impressive 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting (and 68 in 66 Primeira Liga appearances) signed a five-year contract with the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta will be relieved to have finally got him man after he’d been linked with the club for months. And Arsenal fans will certainly be hoping he will be the missing piece of the jigsaw that will help their side go one better than the second-place finishes in the Premier League in each of the last three seasons. But can Gyökeres recreate his exceptional scoring stats in the rough and tumble of the English top flight, or will he find things far tougher than he did in Portugal?
Could Go Either Way for Gyökeres in the EPL
As is inevitable when any big money transfer takes place, plenty of fans and pundits are ready and willing to give their views on whether the player in question will prove a success. One high profile former player-turned-pundit who’s put the boot in just a little is Rio Ferdinand. The former Leeds and Manchester United great suggested on his podcast that Gyökeres would not get the same opportunities in the Premier League as he’s enjoyed in the Portuguese top flight. Although he also admitted he’d only “watched him probably three times really, really closely”, and the Arsenal scouts will certainly have watched him plenty more times than that before the club sanctioned such a splurge of cash to acquire his services.
There have been plenty of positive reactions too, mainly among Arsenal fans who are desperate for a player who can regularly score 20+ league goals a season. That hasn’t happened since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored 22 goals in 36 EPL games in the 2019/20 campaign, and he managed 22 the season before that too. Since then, the best any Arsenal player has managed has been the 16 league goals scored by Bukayo Saka in 2023/24. When it comes to actual strikers, the returns have been meagre to say the least in recent seasons.
But new man Gyökeres could change all that, at least if his impressive Champions League hat-trick against Manchester City in November 2024 is anything to go by. Okay, Pep Guardiola’s men were hardly on top form at the time, and two of the three goals were from the penalty spot. But he still got up and put them away, and Erling Haaland failed to convert a penalty in the match. Gyökeres has also reportedly been very lively in his first training sessions with his new club, showing great desire and energy (though anything less would surely ring alarm bells, to be fair).
Gyökeres Given the No. 14 Shirt… With Plenty to Live Up To
Welcome to Arsenal, Viktor Gyökeres 💪
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) July 26, 2025
Previously worn by Thierry Henry, the aforementioned Aubameyang and Theo Walcott, the number 14 shirt at Arsenal has real significance at the club. Okay, only one of those three is a true legend in north London. But Walcott had plenty of great moments at the club and scored 100 goals in 326 games, while Aubameyang had a fine scoring record too, banging in 92 goals in just 163 games.
We will have to wait and see whether Gyökeres can hit the ground running when the season starts, and his first chance in the Premier League could be particularly poignant for the Swede as it could well be against Manchester United… managed by Gyökeres’s old Sporting boss Ruben Amorim.
Who Were the Best Swedish Players in the Premier League?
As of the end of the 2024/25 season, a total of 74 Swedish footballers have played in the Premier League. Below are some of the most significant players from Sweden to feature, including a good number of Arsenal ones. When it comes to picking the best of those mentioned, it would be hard not to plump for Freddie Ljungberg or Anders Limpar who both served the Gunners so well during their time in north London.
Objectively, Zlatan Ibrahimović is arguably the best player of the lot, though he didn’t quite bring his A-game to England. The same could be said of Sebastian Larsson, Tomas Brolin and Martin Dahlin who all played better for other clubs away from the Premier League during their fine careers. The likes of Sebastian Larsson and Olof Mellberg should also get nods for their consistency over the years too. Below is just a selection of some of the many very decent Swedes to have appeared in the top flight over the years.
- Marcus Allbäck – Aston Villa – 2002-04
- Jesper Blomqvist – Manchester United, Everton, Charlton Athletic – 1998–99, 2001–03
- Tomas Brolin – Leeds United, Crystal Palace – 1995–96, 1997–98
- Martin Dahlin – Blackburn Rovers – 1997–99
- Zlatan Ibrahimović – Manchester United – 2016–18
- Alexander Isak – Newcastle United – 2022–Present
- Andreas Isaksson – Manchester City – 2006–08
- Henrik Larsson – Manchester United – 2006–07
- Sebastian Larsson – Arsenal, Birmingham City, Sunderland – 2005–06, 2007–08, 2009–17
- Anders Limpar – Arsenal, Everton – 1992–97
- Victor Lindelöf – Manchester United – 2017–25
- Freddie Ljungberg – Arsenal, West Ham United – 1998–2008
- Olof Mellberg – Aston Villa – 2001–08
- Roland Nilsson – Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry City – 1992–94, 1997–99
- Robin Olsen – Everton, Aston Villa – 2020–25
- Martin Olsson – Blackburn Rovers, Norwich City, Swansea City – 2007–12, 2013–14, 2015–18
- Stefan Schwarz – Arsenal, Sunderland – 1994–95, 1999–2002
Gyökeres can certainly make a big name for himself in the EPL, and though there are plenty who appear to be lining up and hoping he flops, we have a good feeling about him. There’s no way he fluked his way to almost a goal a game in the last couple of years, and Arsenal will create plenty of chances. So, even if he takes time to settle in, we fully expect the new man to bag at least 20 league goals in his opening season for the Gunners.