Arsenal star told 'it's just not happening' as uncomfortable January reality laid out

Micah Richards admits that "it's just not happening" for Viktor Gyokeres at Arsenal and says the club may have to explore moving him on in January.

That would be just 18 months after Gyokeres joined from Sporting Lisbon for £64million with a host of Europe's top clubs eyeing his services. The Gunners won that race but he's struggled to consistently impact games despite a respectable goal tally of 21 last season.

His overall play isn't always helpful for the rest of the team and the most damning endorsement of his standing was him being left on the bench for the Champions League final, with Kai Havertz preferred. The German remains Mikel Arteta's first-choice man to lead the attack.

Several of Gyokeres' displays have been that of a man lacking in confidence this season, with the Swede scoring just once in 11 outings. And Richards concedes he's had enough time to show his quality.

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The former Manchester City defender said on the Rest is Football: "When he first arrived at Arsenal, I was saying to the Arsenal fans, 'Don't expect him to be scoring 25 and 30 goals'. What I really liked about him, he was good at running in behind, but he stopped doing the things that he's really good at.

"He sort of looks like he has no confidence. I don't know if the reports in the summer that they tried to get rid of him [were true] or not, but essentially he's had enough game time to show what he can do now at Arsenal and it's just not happening for him."

One of the question marks against Arsenal, which was perhaps shown up in their loss to PSG back in May, was their quality in attack when compared to other elite sides in Europe. They've looked to address that but Richards still thinks more can be done - with Gyokeres potentially paying the price.

"I think if they want to compete and then, say, dominate, then 100 per cent, I think they need more firepower in that forward area, for sure," he confessed.

"There are so many times where Gyokeres gets in really good positions, and I don't know if he doesn't back himself, I don't know if it's confidence, I don't know if the team doesn't back him to score, but he just, he doesn't put the ball away.

"So, then it becomes a problem and I just feel like he needs one of those opportunities where he plays 90 minutes, he scores, he builds confidence, and it goes from there. Otherwise, you know, they're going to have to look to move him on."