Mikel Arteta has been told to change his formation to get the best out of Viktor Gyokeres, while the Arsenal boss has delivered a worrying update on Bukayo Saka's fitness after the winger was forced off in midweek.
The Gunners return to Premier League action on Saturday afternoon when they host Everton, hoping to close the gap on league leaders Manchester City. Arteta's side secured a hard-fought 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest last weekend and followed that with an impressive display away at Bayern Munich in the Champions League, where the two champions shared a point.
However, the Bayern game brought a fresh injury blow and a new dilemma over how to get the best out of Gyokeres, who set up Declan Rice's late equaliser after coming on as a substitute.
Limpar urges two-striker system
Former Arsenal midfielder Anders Limpar has suggested that Arteta should deploy two strikers to get the best out of Gyokeres. The Spaniard usually plays a single striker in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation, rarely fielding two forwards unless his side are in urgent need of a goal.
Gyokeres, who arrived in the summer of 2025, scored 21 goals for the Gunners last season. But the Swede has often looked isolated and ineffective as a lone striker, with his limitations in that role seeing him fall behind Kai Havertz in the pecking order this term.
Limpar, who mentored Gyokeres during his formative years at Brommapojkarna in Sweden, has encouraged Arteta to switch to a two-striker formation. Gyokeres usually plays alongside Liverpool's Alexander Isak for his country and has scored 10 goals in 11 international games this year.
"When I see Viktor playing for Sweden, he is much better because he's playing with two up front, and he was brought up in the Swedish system, playing with two forwards," the former Gunners winger told Betarades. "Playing up front on his own is hard for him because it's not his game to be a target player.
"He is good going forward, chasing the ball, and he's a threat on counterattacks, so he needs a player who is a really good target so he can play off them. At the moment, you can see that he's struggling a little bit when it comes to receiving the ball, to pass the ball around.
"It might be nerves, or that he's not comfortable coming off the bench. But you should never ever go out in the press saying that you want to leave or that you want to play every game. That's not good for Arteta, that's not good for him, and that's not good for the club. I'm pretty sure that all the Arsenal players are squad players."
Limpar added: "If you ask me if I want him to play, then yes, I think he should play as a starter. I think he should be a starter, especially now when Kai has struggled a little bit in the last couple of games, but we have to wait and see who is playing the next game."
Saka injury update
Arteta provided an update on Bukayo Saka after Wednesday night's game, expressing concern over the severity of the injury. The Gunners talisman was taken off after just nine minutes against Bayern, having gone to ground holding his leg in discomfort after playing a pass.
He was replaced by Eberechi Eze, who scored just 15 minutes later. But Arsenal fans will be disheartened by the immediate prognosis for the 25-year-old, revealed by Arteta after the match.
"[The medical staff] are a bit concerned," Arteta told TNT Sports. "A player that has to come off with a really sharp pain is never good news. But we have to wait and see. It does not look good at all. It's his quad."
Saka started all seven of Arsenal's Premier League fixtures this season but has suffered several injury absences over the past two years. He missed 15 matches for Arsenal and England last season with various injury issues. In 2024/25, Saka missed 25 games across a total period of more than three months due to a hamstring injury.
