Arsenal have been warned as to why they should not consider selling striker Viktor Gyokeres during the January transfer window, despite the Swede not being suited to the way Mikel Arteta’s team plays.

Gyokeres produced arguably his best performance of the season in midweek with a goal and an assist to help the Gunners see off Slavia Prague in the Champions League, despite being nowhere near their best.

However, it’s been an incredibly frustrating few months to start the season for the 28-year-old, who has started just one Premier League match for the reigning champions.

Gyokeres amassed a more than respectable 21 goals in all competitions in his maiden campaign after arriving from Sporting CP for £64million, but now faces an uncertain future at Emirates Stadium after finding himself playing second fiddle to Kai Havertz up front.

And with speculation that sporting director Andrea Berta could offload Gyokeres in the new year, including links to struggling Manchester United, former Gunners frontman Jeremie Aliadiere has cited why he believes that would be a mistake.

“I think it’s all depending on the finances how much they can get for him and who to replace him with,” Aliadiere told Metro.

“Because I think as much as obviously he’s not in the top 11 now because Havertz is preferred number one, you don’t want to sell him, get a good price and not be able to replace him.

“If Havertz gets injured, which obviously we’ve seen in the past – he’s had a few injuries and he can pick up injuries – you just end up with no striker at all.

“So I think it’s a very difficult January transfer window. Do you try to buy someone before you sell? I think when you look over the summer, selling Trossard and Martinelli before buying somebody.

“Obviously, they go to Tzolis, but I’m not sure Tzolis was bought to be the first choice and when he is injured, you end up doing Eze on the left-hand side, and that’s not really his best position in my opinion.

“So I don’t want it to happen with Gyokeres, thinking let’s try to sell him and recuperate a good transfer fee for him and then not replacing him.”

Gyokeres unlikely to turn Arsenal career around

However, even if Gyokeres remains in north London, Aliadiere cannot see a world in which the Sweden international ever becomes the club’s regular starter through the middle.

“I just feel the way Arsenal plays does not quite suit Gyokeres’ style of play,” Aliadiere, speaking via football betting, added.

“I’ve always been very quite patient and looking at the good stuff that he does, and I still feel that he does some amazing work. But I just do feel that the players don’t really give him the ball quick enough, which is what he needs.

“He needs to be on 1v1. He needs to run the channel, get fed the ball quite quickly. And I feel we’re not really playing that way. We like to control the ball.

“We like to control the tempo and just slow down the game. And I just feel Gyokeres is more of a counter-attacking player where he sees the space, he wants it quickly and then he’s on 1v1 and then he can then dominate physically.

“But he’s rarely getting in that position, so I just find it difficult to kind of see him turning things around in a way of probably just being a rotation player.”