Arsenal are making plans for the January transfer window and it could spell bad news for Viktor Gyokeres

Mikel Arteta once issued a brutal warning to Viktor Gyokeres as he weighs up replacing the Arsenal striker following his barren start to the season.

Despite the Gunners' impressive start to their title defence, Gyokeres has scored just once so far, and that goal came in the shock Carabao Cup defeat at Fleetwood. Arsenal have made signing a top-class forward their top task in January, reports the Mirror.

Arteta is said to be prioritising reinforcements up top as he views it as a necessity for competing on all fronts, which is a damning indictment of Gyokeres and places his future at the club in doubt. In terms of replacing him, the Gunners are said to have their sights set on Bournemouth forward Eli Junior Kroupi, although the Cherries do not want to sell in January.

Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich have also been linked with the 20-year-old Frenchman. Arsenal also have a long-held interest in Juventus' Kenan Yildiz, while there are fresh doubts over Vinicius Junior's future at Real Madrid following the Gunners' summer pursuit of the Brazilian, but a winger is said to be a secondary desire behind a versatile forward.

That leaves Gyokeres looking over his shoulder and being reminded of his first meeting with Arteta, who told the Swede how he must be able to cope with a goal drought if he was to make it at Arsenal.

Following his slow start to last season, the Gunners boss said: "I told him before the first meeting, I said, 'The nine that I want is a nine that when he doesn't score for six or eight games, he can handle that. If not, you have to go somewhere else because the expectation is going to be there.'

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"So, if you put on a nine shirt for Arsenal, you have to be able to say, 'OK, six games, if I don't score, I'm a different player? I start to act in a different way?' No, I want much more of the same of what he's doing.

"You see the history of the number nines. You're going to have moments like this. He brings so much to the team.

"He creates space and solutions to a lot of the players around him. And with the talent that we have in the team, I'm sure that everybody, him included, will benefit from that."

Gyokeres spent most of Sunday's victory at Liverpool on the bench before replacing match-winner Kai Havertz late on. Amid a busy run of games, he will be hoping to start Wednesday's Champions League clash away to Slavia Prague.

Max Dowman is available for the tie as his three-match suspension for his red card at Fleetwood only applies to domestic action. Arsenal saw their appeal against the 16-year-old's dismissal rejected.