Sesko vs Gyokeres

The strikers will be the headline acts in Sunday's blockbuster match at Old Trafford but they could easily have ended up at opposite destinations

Cesc Fabregas throwing pizza at Sir Alex Ferguson. Gary Neville scissor-tackling Jose Antonio Reyes. Roy Keane telling Patrick Vieira "I'll see you out there". Peter Schmeichel taking on Ian Wright after having his leg stamped on. It was rarely a dull affair when Manchester United met Arsenal.

But as well as the vitriol, the epic clashes between the clubs in the late 1990s and early 2000s were remembered as meetings of fearsome forwards. And the best moments belonged to Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy, the two leading marksmen who spearheaded the pitched battles between the teams for five seasons.

The rivalry never really truly recovered from their eventual departures and United-Arsenal was eventually overtaken by Manchester City versus Liverpool as the Premier League's biggest fixture. 

But this summer both United and Arsenal have broken the bank to land leading strikers and when they meet on Sunday at Old Trafford, all eyes will be on Viktor Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko - two lethal centre-forwards who both clubs hope will take them to the next level.

Viktor Gyokeres Benjamin Sesko

Trading places

The names Gyokeres and Sesko have been the lips of United and Arsenal fans for the last year, as both clubs had kept a keen eye on the two most coveted strikers in Europe. Gyokeres' career finally lifted off under the tutelage of Ruben Amorim at Sporting CP, so when the Portuguese coach moved to Old Trafford last November it seemed natural that the new boss would want to take his super-striker with him. But it soon emerged that Gyokeres only wanted a club that would be able to offer him Champions League football, which played to Arsenal's advantage. 

The Gunners, though, remained very interested in Sesko. The player’s agent, Elvis Basanovic, was a guest at their final home game of the season against Newcastle and at the end of May reports suggested that they were going to pick him to be their new No.9. The news stories were met with a lot of anger from Arsenal fans online as Gyokeres was felt to be the safer option, a guarantee of goals rather than a project. Those fans needn't have worried as Arsenal eventually agreed to pay Sporting up to £63m ($86m) for the 27-year-old after new sporting director Andrea Berta urged them to change direction and go for the Sweden frontman instead of the Slovenian.

Sesko, meanwhile, was left without the big move to the Premier League that he had been craving. United were still on the lookout for a striker, however, after Chelsea beat them to Liam Delap and Liverpool landed Hugo Ekitike at their expense. They logically turned to Sesko, who they had explored signing in 2019 when he was 16, then again in 2022 and once more last year before eventually signing Joshua Zirkzee.

With Arsenal out of the picture, it was a straight choice between Newcastle United and the Red Devils for Sesko. He immediately opted for the 20-times league winners over the Magpies, rejecting the chance to play Champions League football at St. James' Park.

Viktor Gyokeres Arsenal 2025-26

The missing piece

United and Arsenal have been crying out for a reliable centre-forward for some time, hence why they both committed so much time and money to their new recruits. A top-level striker, in theory, is the last missing piece for Arsenal after finishing second in the league for three years in a row and reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League last season.

Mikel Arteta's side had the best defence in the Premier League last term, conceding just 34 goals compared to champions Liverpool's 41. They were let down by their attack, scoring 69 goals compared to 91 the year before - when they missed out on the title to Manchester City by two points - and 88 in 2022-23.

No Arsenal player managed double figures last season, with Bukayo Saka's long absence after injuring his hamstring in December proving a big factor in their blunt attack. Kai Havertz finished as their top scorer with nine goals, his season ending in February after tearing his hamstring during a warm-weather camp in Dubai. It forced the Gunners to play central midfielder Mikel Merino up front for the remainder of the campaign. 

Even without a natural centre-forward, Arsenal rarely struggled to create chances. Converting them was a different matter. Their wastefulness was a big factor in them drawing 14 games last season. In 12 of the 18 matches in which they dropped points, they had a higher expected goals (xG) than their opponents.

Viktor Gyokeres Sporting 2025

Only behind Mbappe

Arsenal have not had a consistent out-and-out striker since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored 22 league goals in back-to-back seasons between 2018 and 2020. It was hoped that Gabriel Jesus could have a similar impact after signing from Manchester City in 2022 but a strong start to his first campaign in north London was derailed by a knee injury at the World Cup and he suffered a similar problem last season. He has scored a total of 18 Premier League goals in his three seasons.

Arsenal could not have signed a more prolific striker than Gyokeres, who scored 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting. He scored 39 goals in the league, averaging 1.25 strikes per start. That's more goals per start than the entire United squad managed. 

He ranked second in the European Golden Shoe rankings, only losing to Kylian Mbappe because the Portuguese league was given a lower weighting than La Liga as it is outside of Europe's top five leagues. The lack of quality beyond the major three sides in Portugal has to be considered, but it is worth stating that no player in Portugal had scored as many goals as Gyokeres since Mario Jardel in 2002.

Arsenal v Newcastle: Pre-Season Friendly

Henry: 'The perfect match'

Amorim warned that Gyokeres will have to adapt to a different and more physical league but he is not an English football novice. He joined Brighton when he was 20 but never made the first team. He did have success in the second tier of  English football, though, when being loaned to Coventry City, and after making the move permanent he scored 21 goals in the Championship, leading to him signing for Sporting for a club record €24m (£21m/$28m).

"He already was in England, let's not forget that. He was at Coventry, he couldn't do it at Brighton. So, you can see a guy who already knows what struggling is and comes back from that," said Thierry Henry, Arsenal's all-time top scorer. "He's more confident, and you can see from his body the way he's looked after himself, the way he's changed. You have a guy that's a killer in the box – numbers don't lie – and you have a team that creates a lot of chances, so it should be the perfect match."

While Arsenal see Gyokeres as the missing link between them and a first league title in 22 years or even a first major trophy in six, Sesko has a different remit at United. He has been brought in to help the team rise from the ashes of their lowest league finish, lowest points total and lowest goal count (just 44 strikes) in 51 years. 

A lack of goals, however, is not a new problem for the Red Devils. Even when they finished third under Erik ten Hag they only scored 58 times. And they have only scored more than 70 times in one season since Ferguson retired in 2013. No player has scored 20 goals in one campaign since Robin van Persie in that same season. Cristiano Ronaldo has come closest with 18, with Marcus Rashford hitting 17 in two campaigns.

Rasmus Hojlund Manchester United 2024-25

A gamble like Hojlund?

United hoped that Rasmus Hojlund would be their main No.9 for many years to come when they paid Atalanta £72m ($92m) for him in 2023 after turning away from a potential move for Harry Kane. The Dane waited four months to net his first league goal and although he ended his debut season with 10 strikes, his second campaign was a huge disappointment as he managed only four league goals and endured a drought of 22 matches without scoring in any competition. Hojlund was keen to emphasise last month: "It was a tough season on us all. I should have done better, everybody knows. But it's a team thing." 

And former United midfielder Nicky Butt said a lack of support was the  striker's undoing. "Hojlund has been let down a little bit," he told GOAL. "He's a young player brought into a big football club like Man Utd and all the weight is on his shoulders to go and perform and score goals week in, week out, It was too soon for him."

Butt also exercised some caution with Sesko, who has arrived for an even bigger price than Hojlund without scoring more than 15 goals in a season in one of Europe's top five leagues (he scored 14 times in his first campaign with Leipzig and 13 in his second). “A bit of a gamble,” is how he described the deal.

One big difference between Sesko and Hojlund, though, is that United's latest signing had been on their radar since he was 16. Hojlund was something of a late bloomer, reigniting his career at Sturm Graz after being let go by Copenhagen. And one coach from his hometown claimed that he was in fact the least talented of his three brothers.

Benjamin Sesko Manchester United 2025

'He'll make history'

Sesko appears to be a much more confident player than Hojlund and Amorim has no doubts about his ability to adapt to United and the Premier League.

"First of all, physically he’s ready and that’s a big component in our league. Then he’s really smart. He asks about every detail, he is always thinking about football, he’s really obsessed about it,” Amorim said. "I can see Ben being a striker for Manchester United for a lot of years, that is why we paid so much money to have a striker that will make history in our club."

Amorim’s words will be music to United’s fans' ears. To succeed at United you need talent, confidence and dedication and the early signs are that Sesko has all three. He is still a project rather than the finished article but he is a hugely exciting one. Sunday is his first assignment, coming up against the club he thought he was going to join. And he will be facing off against the guy they chose instead. 

It is the perfect subplot for a blockbuster opening game. And if Sesko and Gyokeres can hit the ground running at their new clubs then this once-engrossing rivalry will have a striker showdown to compare with Henry and Van Nistelrooy in their pomp.