With the acquisition of prolific striker Viktor Gyokeres, Arsenal aims to finally secure the Premier League title. The crucial question is: how many goals must the Swedish forward contribute for the Gunners to realistically challenge for top honors?
Following three successive seasons as Premier League runners-up, Arsenal has invested over $75 million to bring Gyokeres to the Emirates. His impressive record of 97 goals in just 102 appearances for Sporting across all competitions, after his move from Coventry City, sets high expectations. He is tasked with elevating Arsenal, not only to clinch the Premier League but also to potentially secure their inaugural Champions League title.
Despite potential concerns about replicating his Portuguese league goal tally in the more competitive English Premier League, Gyokeres will benefit from strong support at Arsenal, including Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, and new signing Noni Madueke. If he can leverage his strengths and find similar scoring opportunities as he did at Sporting, Arsenal will undoubtedly be strong title contenders. The key is determining the specific goal threshold he needs to surpass to put them over the top.
To understand the scoring benchmark, let`s examine the top goal-scorers for Premier League champions over the past decade:
Top Scorers of Premier League Winners (2015-2025)
| Season | PL Winner | Top Scorer | Number of Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Liverpool | Mohamed Salah | 29 |
| 2023-24 | Manchester City | Erling Haaland | 27 |
| 2022-23 | Manchester City | Erling Haaland | 36 |
| 2021-22 | Manchester City | Kevin De Bruyne | 15 |
| 2020-21 | Manchester City | Ilkay Gundogan | 13 |
| 2019-20 | Liverpool | Mohamed Salah | 19 |
| 2018-19 | Manchester City | Sergio Aguero | 21 |
| 2017-18 | Manchester City | Sergio Aguero | 21 |
| 2016-17 | Chelsea | Diego Costa | 20 |
| 2015-16 | Leicester City | Jamie Vardy | 24 |
Analysis of the last ten Premier League seasons reveals that a champion`s top scorer has dipped below 20 goals only thrice. Notably, two of these instances involved Manchester City, where Pep Guardiola`s system often distributes goals across multiple players, making these outliers. The average top scorer for a title-winning team over this period stands at 22.5 goals. Given Arsenal`s attacking talent, Gyokeres should receive ample opportunities to meet or exceed this average this season.
In the 2024-25 season, five players reached or surpassed 20 Premier League goals, with three of those players` teams finishing in the top four. This underscores that a 20+ goal tally should be Gyokeres` benchmark for Arsenal this campaign. Last season, a single goal could have altered many outcomes for the Gunners, who finished 10 points behind Liverpool. While seemingly a large gap, Arsenal recorded 14 draws (the second-highest in the league) and three of their four losses were by a single goal. A clinical forward like Gyokeres could have converted these narrow margins into victories.
Last season, Arsenal`s primary forwards, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz, collectively contributed 22 goals and six assists. In stark contrast, Gyokeres alone netted 39 league goals for Sporting. While a slight reduction in output is expected when transitioning to the Premier League, if Gyokeres can achieve 20 or more goals, Arsenal will significantly boost their chances of securing a trophy in the upcoming season, especially considering their top scorer averaged only 13.3 goals over the past three seasons.
