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If Viktor Gyökeres develops into the forward that every Arsenal fans have been wishing for, then perhaps they will look back on this night as the moment his fortune changed. In keeping with the timeless attacker’s creed, it doesn’t matter how they hit the back of the net.

Following a streak of nine matches for club and country without a goal and pressure mounting on the man signed for £64m in the summer, a tremendous feeling of ease engulfed the Emirates Stadium when Gyökeres tapped in from near distance via a glance off David Hancko during a pulsating second half when Mikel Arteta’s side demonstrated once more that they are here to compete this season.

Dramatic Turnaround in Form

Less than three minutes later and to the delight of the stadium crowd, his face-covering routine borrowed from the character Bane in Batman, whose catchphrase is “nobody cared until I put on the mask,” was given another airing after bundling over from Gabriel Magalhães’s header following a Declan Rice corner to complete the rout against Atlético Madrid. Down on the touchline, Arteta celebrated wildly and signaled enthusiastically in the direction of his recent signing, of whom he has spent the last fortnight insisting the peak performance awaited.

“This is football, and we can’t expect a player to move leagues and have him perform identically right away,” the Arsenal manager stated in a discussion with the Spanish newspaper Marca prior to the match. “Things are very different. Each athlete anywhere need one thing: their psychological state to be at its best. I informed Viktor in our initial discussion that the striker I desired at Arsenal was someone who could remain strong psychologically when they went six or eight games without scoring. Otherwise, you’re not suited at this tier. That’s why I have a lot of faith in him.”

Early Challenges

When he was just 14 playing for IFK Aspudden-Tellus, who are situated in Stockholm’s southside districts, that Gyökeres first understood he would have to build resilience to make it in his vocation. Criticised after a subpar outing by a coach who said he lacked the mindset to make it in professional play, he was eventually transformed from a wide player into a striker after moving to Brommapojkarna two years later. “Those words lingered and I recall it now,” he said in a recent interview.

Difficult Phase

Having failed to score since the victory against Nottingham Forest here back on 13 September, this has been one of the hardest times of his career. Gyökeres was sharply rebuked after Sweden were defeated by Kosovo and Switzerland in World Cup qualifiers in the past fortnight, with one newspaper labeling his display against the latter as “absent.”

He achieved an incredible 54 goals in 52 appearances in all tournaments for Sporting last season, so the difficulty is clearly not his goal conversion. As Arteta has frequently pointed out, his complete game has added a new layer in offense, even if the opportunities have not come to him.

Game Analysis

This was plainly visible during the opening period of this elite matchup between two teams that had initially seemed closely contested. There was a sense that Gyökeres was pressing too much to impress as he ran aggressively like a bull in a china shop during the opening minutes. An Eberechi Eze shot that bounced on to the bar inside the first few moments was set up by some quick moves on the edge of the Atlético area that niftily took him away from his marker, José María Giménez.

Giménez has the aura of a man who could start a fight in an empty bar but is deeply knowledgeable at this stage compared with Gyökeres, who is competing in merely his second Champions League campaign after netting three goals for Sporting against Manchester City last season that must have gone a long way to influencing Arteta to take the plunge.

Constant Hustle

Nevertheless having faced scrutiny that he was overweight after missing most of pre-season in Portugal, Arsenal’s considerably trimmer striker chased down every ball as if his career hung in the balance. Giménez was tricked into conceding a yellow card when Gyökeres ran into him on the edge of the Atlético area having simply held his position. Gabriel Martinelli saw his effort disallowed for offside after converting Bukayo Saka’s cross and it only came in the second half that the Swede had his first sight of goal.

A exquisite touch from Martinelli created an ideal chance, only for Jan Oblak to swiftly block an unconvincing toe-poke towards goal. Then it must have appeared that the opening goal would not arrive. But the goals flowed when Gabriel scored with a header Rice’s free-kick and Gyökeres was ready to capitalize as the man in the mask made his mark. “Hopefully this is the beginning of a great run,” said a delighted Arteta.