Imagine him & Merino: Arsenal holds talks over signing £86m goal machine

We are just a couple of days away from Arsenal kickstarting their Premier League campaign with what could be a tough opening fixture at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Mikel Arteta's side will be hoping to go one better than last year and finally end their two-decade title drought, but to make that objective more attainable, Edu Gaspar and Co must bring in some more quality reinforcements.

Riccardo Calafiori is the only new addition to the first team thus far, although it does appear that some progress is being made regarding the signing of Mikel Merino.

The Spaniard would be a brilliant addition to the midfield, and based on recent reports, the North Londoners could also be looking to sign a new attacker who'd work brilliantly with him.

Arsenal transfer news

According to a report from yesterday's print edition of the Portuguese newspaper Record, Arsenal have maintained their interest in Sporting CP striker Viktor Gyokeres.

The report claims that the Gunners have recently held 'informal' talks with the Lisbon outfit about the superstar forward.

However, the bad news is that while a transfer is undoubtedly possible, Sporting are resilient in their valuation of the Swedish international, which stands at a massive £86m.

Now, while it would require a herculean financial effort from Arsenal to complete this deal, they have shown a willingness to spend big before, and with so much on the line this season, they must do so again. Moreover, Gyokeres could form a brilliant partnership with Merino at the Emirates.

Why Gyokeres would be a great signing for Arsenal and Merino

Okay, so the first thing to say is that if Merino does end up joining Arsenal in the coming weeks, as it looks like he will, he'd almost certainly be able to form effective partnerships with the team's current striking options, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus.

However, there is one fundamental reason a partnership with Gyokeres would be more fruitful: his output.

For example, in his 50 appearances for Sporting last season, the "outstanding" number nine, as dubbed by analyst and former player Adrian Clarke, scored a mammoth 43 goals and provided 15 assists for good measure, meaning he maintained a world-class average of a goal involvement every 0.86 games or 1.16 per game.

In contrast, Havertz racked up 21 goals and assists in 51 appearances, while Jesus managed 16 in 36, meaning the German averaged a goal involvement every 2.42 games, and the Brazilian averaged one every 2.25 matches.

However, this potential partnership would be built on more than just the Swede's impressive record. The Sociedad ace has a few attributes that would make him a dream to play with for a poacher like the former Coventry City ace, notably his ability to win duels.

For example, according to Squawka, the 6 foot 2 "monster", as dubbed by data analyst Ben Mattinson, won a staggering 326 duels last season and was the only player in Europe's top seven leagues to win over 300.

Moreover, according to FBref, which compares players in similar positions across Europe's top five leagues, the 28-year-old unsurprisingly sits in the top 1% of midfielders for aerial duels won, winning on average 5.99 per 90.

Now, the reason this would be so beneficial for the Sporting star is that these duels are not all defensive; many of them will be the Spaniard getting to a ball from a teammate first and heading it on to his attackers, meaning that if Arsenal decided to go long from David Raya during a game, there would be a very good chance that Merino would get to it first and then quickly get it up the pitch into the path of the Stockholm-born marksman to bury in the back of the net.

Ultimately, signing Gyokeres will cost the North Londoners a king's ransom, but given his incredible form last season and what's on the line this season, he's worth spending the money on, and he could be unreal alongside Merino.