Arsenal’s summer exits put Gyokeres under Arteta pressure
Viktor gyokeres is among the Arsenal players who need to step up as Mikel Arteta is expected to oversee several high-profile exits this summer. The pressure sits inside a wider squad reset built around sales, selection changes and a push to finish the transfer window with a stronger core.
Arteta’s hard choices
Arteta has already made ruthless calls when he judged an upgrade was available or the time had come for a big-name departure. Aaron Ramsdale, David Raya and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are the clearest examples, and those decisions now frame how Arsenal’s next round of exits could be handled.
That history matters because the club has been widely reported for months to be preparing more high-profile departures in summer 2025 to raise funds after years of immense spending. Arsenal went into the 2025 summer transfer window aiming to secure the final pieces needed to win a major trophy, and the margins for players who do not improve are getting tighter.
Gyokeres and Arsenal’s attack
Gyokeres has been pulled into that pressure point despite arriving as a summer signing. The attack around him has not settled cleanly, and the club’s final-third output is still being judged against the standard Arsenal set for itself when it planned that 2025 window.
Gabriel Martinelli is another name in the same frame. The club’s view is that it was a mistake not to replace him, and the added competition from Eze and Noni Madueke has not pushed him to another level. That leaves Arteta with a forward group still searching for the sharpest combination rather than one settled answer.
Odegaard, White and the bench
Martin Odegaard’s stop-start 2025/26 campaign has put him on the exit ramp, while summer signing Eze has been tipped to take his place in Arteta’s side. Max Dowman and Ethan Nwaneri are waiting in the wings behind him, which gives Arsenal more options but also more internal pressure on established names.
Ben White has already been replaced by Jurrien Timber in the starting XI, and Timber’s performances have fully justified that switch. Arsenal’s downturn in form and performances has come while Timber has been unavailable through injury, a reminder that the team’s structure can change quickly once one key piece is missing.
For Gyokeres, the message is simple. A summer signing at a club preparing for more brutal transfer calls cannot afford to sit comfortably in the middle of the rebuild. Arteta has shown he will move players on when the level shifts, and this summer’s decisions could decide who stays in the next version of Arsenal.
