Victor Dioceres is set to join Arsenal. The Swedish striker scored 39 league goals last season, more than any other player in Europe's top eight leagues. But are goals in the Portuguese top flight a fair measure of quality?
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Sky Sports' Sam Blitz takes a closer look at what makes Victor Dioceres stand out among the Premier League's best strikers and how high is the standard of the Portuguese Primeira Liga?
The football community has long called on Arsenal to sign a striker and the Gunners have finally responded. Victor Dioceres is heading to the Emirates.
The transfer would be a landmark move for the Premier League – no player in Europe's top eight leagues scored as many goals as Dioceres did for Sporting last season (39) – and it could mean another elite goalscorer joining the division.
However, for Arsenal it is even more significant given their financial outlay under Mikel Arteta.
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Until this summer, with Arteta taking over, just £75m had been allocated to attacking players. Much of that was spent on the £45m transfer of Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City in 2023, with Leandro Trossard the only significant signing in that department.
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A further £65m was spent on Kai Havertz, but the German initially started out as an attacking midfielder at Arsenal before moving to centre-forward.
In that context, Arsenal's £52m acquisition of Diokeres and Noni Madueke looks, on the face of it, sensible. Not only are the Gunners investing in a squad where they need more quality and depth (Jesus is out for the rest of the year through injury), but in Diokeres they are acquiring a natural centre-forward, something Havertz has never truly been.
Diokeres also has experience of English football, including a successful spell with Coventry, where he scored 40 goals in 97 appearances. “He was really brilliant,” Adi Viveash, who coached and mentored the striker, told Sky Sports.
“His strength, his ability to receive the ball and move with it, to break through areas, to link up play – he was very good in both boxes, taking set pieces – that wasn't his strong point, but he's certainly become very good in defensive set pieces, protecting the front post.”
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Victor Dioceres was merciless against Coventry in the 2022/23 season and has only improved since then…
He looks like a perfect fit for Arsenal. However, compared to Arteta's other options, he is not the only one. As well as being a natural No.9, his style of play is very different to the Gunners'.
Viveash describes D'
Sourse: skysports.com
