Viktor Gyokeres has an unshakable belief. And that has to be a good thing because there have been plenty questioning the £64m striker since his arrival at Arsenal.

But now Gyokeres’ mental strength, determination and single-minded attitude appear to be paying off because we are seeing signs of improvement.

Gyokeres has scored 15 goals in 36 games in all competitions which means he has outperformed more than other big summer signings like Joao Pedro and Hugo Ekitike.

The Swede has also outscored all his Premier League rivals in 2026 and his two-goal performance in the North London derby also spoke to a better all-round team performance.

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But having said all of that, the jury remains out on a striker who worked his way up from Brighton, a spell at Coventry and then a prolific time at Sporting Lisbon.

Gyokeres has looked cumbersome at times, too heavy and even slow but you are judged to a very high standard when you sign for Arsenal and play with elite players.

They create more chances; Arsenal boast a team full of technical players and the likes of Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka look more polished and skilful.

There are times when it feels like Gyokeres has barely touched the ball in games and has made such little impact even though his teammates say he distracts defenders.

But you cannot just provide hard work if you are not holding the ball up to bring other players into the game. That is just not enough.

That was his game in a nutshell at Tottenham. Even former Arsenal defender Lee Dixon said on the BBC that Gyokeres was both his hero and villain of the weekend.

Villain for his first-half performance because nothing was sticking and it was all coming back in a frustrating display.

Hero because he kept going, scored twice in the second half and supplied a clever flick in the build-up to another goal. He has great strength and power plus a shot like a hammer.

That is Gyokeres all over. Earlier in the season, it took him time to get going and was getting in the groove when he suffered a hamstring injury at Burnley.

It felt like he was back to square one. It has taken a while to get going again but the goal stats do speak for themselves, even if he is clearly never going to be a polished striker in the club’s best traditions of superstars like Thierry Henry or Dennis Bergkamp.

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The problem for Arsenal is they needed a polished, classy striker for this team and someone who could combine goals with performance.

Gyokeres will need a lot more games like his second half at Tottenham to really prove his worth because other strikers look more easy on the eye, they move better and have looked better overall.

He is a quiet person around the training ground but people have been so impressed with his mentality and maybe that comes from his early days as he struggled to prove himself at Brighton and so on.

That could serve him well at Arsenal and maybe he is coming out the other side. But he should not be judged on his second 45 minutes at Tottenham. He should be judged on whether he can maintain that sort of performance.

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