A decade ago, Arsenal should have won the Premier League. They didn\u2019t. They failed not because shock champions Leicester City were better in the big games, since Arsenal defeated them home and away, but because Leicester were better in all the other games.<\/p>\n
Leicester ended up finishing 10 points clear of Arsenal, despite losing to them twice. In other words, Claudio Ranieri\u2019s side achieved fully 16 more points than the north Londoners against the other 18 teams in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
Arsene Wenger\u2019s boys suffered some daft losses that season \u2014 away at 14th-place finishers West Bromwich Albion, and at home to Swansea City, who came 12th. Leicester did not. Aside from those two Arsenal defeats, they were beaten only once, away at Liverpool. They collected 52 points from a possible 60 against the eventual 10 bottom-half clubs.<\/p>\n
Their counter-attacking style meant you\u2019d expect them to cause problems against sides playing open football, but suffer against deeper blocks. But they didn\u2019t. And, in part, this was because they had a player who, that season, was a bit of a flat-track bully.<\/p>\n
The tall, slightly ungainly Leonardo Ulloa was not an outstanding footballer. But he scored an 89th-minute winner in a 1-0 win over eventually-relegated Norwich City in the run-in. He scored and assisted in a 3-0 victory at Newcastle United, who also went down. Other goals came against Swansea, West Ham United and Stoke City. He didn\u2019t net any against title challengers but Ulloa, an Argentinian signed from then Championship side Brighton & Hove Albion, and whose best goalscoring season had come in the Spanish second division for Almeria, bashed in a few against some weaker sides.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n\n Leonardo Ulloa played an important role in Leicester\u2019s Premier League title win (Adrian Dennis\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That, more or less, is what Viktor Gyokeres has been for Arsenal this season.<\/p>\n Even given his recent improvement, Gyokeres has not been a great success story in his debut year at the Emirates Stadium following an initial \u20ac63.5million (\u00a355.3m\/$73.3m at the current rates) move from Sporting CP in Portugal.<\/p>\n At various points, he\u2019s looked sluggish, his touch has been poor, and he\u2019s made the wrong runs when his team-mates are crossing the ball. But Gyokeres is, at least, the top scorer for the Premier League leaders. And Arsenal haven\u2019t lost to anyone lower than fifth in the current table. They\u2019ve dropped only six points against bottom-half opposition, while nearest challengers Manchester City have dropped 15.<\/p>\n The Swede has scored three goals against 15th-placed Leeds United, two against both Tottenham Hotspur in 16th and 12th-placed Sunderland, another against fourth-bottom Nottingham Forest, and one against 19th-placed Burnley. He\u2019s only scored once against a top-half club, in a 1-0 win at Everton, and that was from the penalty spot. And he\u2019s not a flawless flat-track bully either: in recent draws against Brentford and Wolverhampton Wanderers, he hasn\u2019t even attempted a shot. But he\u2019s just about found the net enough to win Arsenal some must-win games.<\/p>\n In matches against the likes of City and Liverpool, Gyokeres has been largely ineffective. All being well, manager Mikel Arteta would not have started him in those contests.<\/p>\n A fit Kai Havertz, superior at dropping deep and linking play, would surely have been used instead. But Havertz has only been fit enough to participate in four Premier League matches this season.<\/p>\n In his two starts among the four, recent wins against Leeds and Sunderland, Arteta has deployed Havertz in midfield and the main beneficiary of this has been Gyokeres, who has been more connected to the rest of the side. Indeed, the first of two goals in the 3-0 defeat of Sunderland came from a neat Havertz through ball \u2014 the type of service he simply hasn\u2019t received from Martin Odegaard or Eberechi Eze.<\/p>\n Gyokeres is what might be considered a \u2018Saturday 3pm striker\u2019, a term that admittedly makes less sense in the era of more televised matches than ever. But he is not your man for the big Super Sunday contests against title rivals.<\/p>\n He\u2019s probably not your man for big Champions League knockout ties either. He\u2019s your man for sticking it in the onion bag against teams who turn up at the Emirates and play for a goalless draw \u2014 the types of fixtures that are traditionally not chosen for live TV broadcast because they feel like foregone conclusions.<\/p>\n But you do still have to win those games, and many title challenges \u2014 Liverpool in 2008-09, to use another example \u2014 have fallen short due to too many failures in such seemingly easy matches.<\/p>\n This, after all, is what Gyokeres is accustomed to.<\/p>\n The problem with buying a striker from a team in Portugal is \u2014 to be a little pedantic \u2014 not that the Portuguese top flight is weak<\/em>. The problem is that the Portuguese league is unequal<\/em>.<\/p>\n A post-Gyokeres Sporting are currently the 16th-best team in the world game, according to Opta\u2019s rankings. Their biggest domestic rivals Benfica and Porto are also in the top 35. These are very good sides. But those in the bottom half of the 18-team Primeira Liga are rated between 389th and 900th globally, which roughly spans the gap between top and bottom in League One, the third tier of English football.<\/p>\n \n Gyokeres scored a Champions League hat-trick against Man City while at Sporting (Filipe Amorim\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So Gyokeres attracted Arsenal by banging in goals against much weaker opponents, which is largely his job now.<\/p>\n Of course, he did also look pretty good when scoring a hat-trick for Sporting against City in the league phase of last season\u2019s Champions League, and Arsenal wouldn\u2019t turn down some goals from him when facing good sides, too. But \u2018big games\u2019 are essentially overrated in league football. Look through the history of the Premier League and the head-to-head clashes between the title challengers rarely decide the destination of said title.<\/p>\n There are plenty of sports where you simply cannot win the biggest prizes by being effective at beating up low-ranked opponents. You won\u2019t win a world boxing title, as you\u2019ll probably have to defeat the reigning champion. You won\u2019t win a tennis Grand Slam event \u2014 unless all the big seeds suffer surprise defeats.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/03\/03084910\/GettyImages-2182485175-scaled.jpg\")
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