Rio Ferdinand had been expecting big things from Viktor Gyokeres against Arsenal (Picture: TNT Sport)
Rio Ferdinand was underwhelmed by Viktor Gyokeres during Sporting Lisbon’s 5-1 defeat against Arsenal and sounded a warning to his many admirers.
After scoring a hat-trick against Manchester City earlier in the competition, the Sweden international’s reputation was sky-high ahead of last night’s acid test against the Gunners twin towers of power William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.
Gyokores endured a difficult evening and his threat was extinguished by two defenders who relished the physical battle.
The former Coventry striker also suffered the ignominy of watching Gabriel mimic his trademark goal celebration on the stroke of half-time.
Chelsea, Manchester United and, indeed, Arsenal themselves have all been linked with a move for a player who has a £65 million release clause but Ferdinand fears he flunked his audition.
‘His strengths played into the strengths of the two central defenders he was up against and that’s what he’d find in the Premier League week in week out,’ Ferdinand told TNT Sport.
‘Two big strong centre halves the majority of the time. Can he deal with them?
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It was a tough night for Viktor Gyokeres (Picture: Getty)
‘It wasn’t until Gabriel went off that he actually got a bit of joy against Kiwior, a player who’s not as big and not as strong.
‘These two centre halve are the best as a partnership and they didn’t give him an ounce the whole game. He’s been crucifying teams in those areas running the channels, these guys look supremely comfortable in doing that.
‘Have I seen enough to say he can come to the Premier League and be a success? I’m not saying he wouldn’t, but I’m saying you’d need to see more than what we saw today.’
Fellow pundit and former Arsenal centre-half Martin Keown added: ‘Totally agree, but credit to the Arsenal boys, they rose to the challenge and they are quick, strong, mobile and dealt with pretty much everything that came their way.
‘Kiwior came on and had a little bit of an issue but he wasn’t able to bully them. They didn’t give him an awful lot of the ball but here he was shooting early because he didn’t fancy taking on Gabriel.
‘They showed their quality tonight.’