Thierry Henry benchmark as Gyökeres reaches 21 in Arsenal win
thierry henry sits in rare company now. Viktor Gyökeres scored twice and added an assist as Arsenal beat Fulham 3-0 at the Emirates on Saturday, taking him to 21 goals in his debut season. He is the first Arsenal player since Alexis Sánchez in 2014-15 to reach 20 or more goals in all competitions in a first season.
Gyökeres at the Emirates
Gyökeres opened the scoring with his 20th goal in all competitions for Arsenal this season, then headed in on the stroke of half-time to move to 21. He also supplied the assist that helped turn the match into a comfortable win.
The £55m signing has not taken the straightest path to that total. He scored just three times in his first 11 competitive appearances, then managed only one goal in 10 games during a lean spell from late November to the start of the year.
Arsenal's finishing surge
Since the start of 2026, he has scored 14 goals in all competitions. Fourteen of his Premier League goals have come with three from penalties, and his latest league work came after he converted his 27th consecutive penalty against Atlético Madrid in last week’s Champions League semi-final first leg.
That burst puts him among the names Arsenal have used as a standard for first-season scoring. Ian Wright scored 26 in 1991-92, Henry scored 26 in 1999-2000, and Sánchez reached 25 in 2014-15. Robin van Persie, by contrast, scored nine in his debut Arsenal season in 2004-05.
Henry, Sánchez, and the bar
Arsenal’s forward line has not always clicked with Gyökeres leading it, and he has at times looked isolated while struggling to link play as effectively as Kai Havertz. Saturday offered the cleaner version of his game: two finishes, one assist, and a total that now places him inside a very small group in club history.
For Arsenal, the practical takeaway is simple. Their £55m forward has reached the kind of first-season output that only Henry and Sánchez topped in the Premier League era, and he did it with a complete attacking performance rather than a single isolated goal.
