Arsenal kicked off their 2025–26 European campaign with a 2-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao, thanks to second-half goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, both coming off the bench. ..Continue Reading
Manager Mikel Arteta gave Gyokeres his long-awaited Champions League debut, but the Swedish striker couldn’t find the net and was eventually substituted for Trossard.
Gyokeres had a golden opportunity to score after timing his run perfectly to beat the offside trap, but a heavy touch narrowed his angle and he failed to test goalkeeper Unai Simon—an error Thierry Henry didn’t hesitate to critique.
Pointing at Gyokeres as he made his way towards the penalty area, Henry said: “The ball has to go here, across the defender. There’s no way that those guys should catch you if you take care of the ball properly.”
“He’s going to have two chances to do it,” the former Arsenal striker added. “He won’t do it. He doesn’t even look at what’s happening. He’s praying. They are praying. But that first touch is not going to be good.”
Fellow CBS pundit Micah Richards interjected and asked: “Is that a confidence thing or a technical thing?”
Henry replied: “Yes, yes. Look, we all know that he’s been scoring, but away from home, that has to be a goal. He should have had a 1v1. I’m just saying this is the difference between going 1-0 up and still staying 0-0.”
Here’s how fans on social media reacted to Henry’s analysis.
One wrote: “These are the margins that decide games on the elite stage. Most elite #9’s (Kane, Mbappe, Isak, Haaland) take that touch Henry alluded to and kills the opponents. But Gyokeres didn’t have to do that in Portugal. The conditions have changed.”
A second commented: “Nothing better than listening to great players breaking down the intricacies of their craft like this,” and a third said: “Brilliant analysis from Thierry Henry on the small details that stopped Gyokeres scoring for Arsenal.”
A fourth wrote: “He’s such a top pundit. He did an analysis on someone’s touch a couple months ago and was stunned at how good it was. He always finds the small details the 0.01% notice.”
A fifth added: “He’s spot on. Gyokeres needed to move inside with his first touch to go direct to goal. Defender commits a foul, then he’s off.”
Speaking ahead of Gyokeres’ debut for Arsenal, Henry urged fans to be patient as the player adapts to a new club.
“It’s always unfair because when I talk about a striker, it brings an unnecessary pressure, sometimes, because whenever I say something it goes above and beyond,’ he told Betway.
“What I would say about Gyokeres is that you saw his goal against Athletic Club the other day. That instinct and understanding to anticipate the cross, a great header with soft touch to guide it to the other side of the goal – he is a proper No. 9. That’s the goal of a 9.
“He is not a Firmino type of 9 that’s going to drop into midfield. He wants to be in the box, in between the posts, and he said it himself – please put the ball in the box and serve me.
“You have a guy that’s a killer in the box – numbers don’t lie – and you have a team that create a lot of chances, so it should be the perfect match, but you have to also understand that sometimes it doesn’t click straight away.”
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