{"id":10065,"date":"2026-05-13T13:09:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=10065"},"modified":"2026-05-13T13:09:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:09:51","slug":"wayne-rooney-names-arsenal-star-who-will-be-major-factor-in-end-of-season-run-in-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=10065","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Rooney names Arsenal star who will be &#8216;major factor&#8217; in end-of-season run-in | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"646\" height=\"415\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271454852.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28352681\" alt=\"Liverpool FC v Paris Saint-Germain FC - UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Quarter-Final Second Leg\" decoding=\"sync\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Wayne Rooney believes that Viktor Gyokeres\u2019 performances will be a \u2018major factor\u2019 in Arsenal\u2019s bid to end their season with a historic double.<\/p>\n<p>Gyokeres was Arsenal\u2019s big-money signing last summer, joining from Sporting CP for \u00a364million in a bid to add more firepower to Mikel Arteta\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n<p>The Swede endured a sluggish start to life at the Emirates, scoring just three goals in his first 11 matches before going 10 games without a goal from open play.<\/p>\n<p>But the 27-year-old has proven his worth towards the back end of the season, scoring a brace against Fulham and delivering a man-of-the-match display against Atletico Madrid in the Gunners\u2019 Champions League semi-final second leg.<\/p>\n<p>Those recent results have left Arsenal within three wins of securing a first league title in more than 20 years, as well as a first-ever Champions League crown.<\/p>\n<p>And Rooney believes that Gyokeres\u2019 all-around play will be of vital importance if Arsenal are to get over the line in both competitions in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019ve said this all season and I have been criticised for saying it, but I actually really like him,\u2019 Rooney told The Overlap EFL Fan Debate with SkyBet.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275037210.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28353570\" alt=\"West Ham United v Arsenal - Premier League\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Viktor Gyokeres has scored 21 goals across all competitions this season (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.metro.co.uk\/i\/html_modules\/2026\/05_MAY\/260511_PL_TITLE_ARS_MAN_NEW_V2\/index.html\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500px\" class=\"metro-iframe iframe-autoheight \" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" name=\"6a04781ee11db\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u2018What he brings to that Arsenal team is that he occupies defenders. He makes them work, he makes them defend, he runs the channels.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018And what we\u2019ve seen recently is that it\u2019s creating more space for [Eberechi] Eze and for [Bukayo] Saka \u2014 because if one, or both centre-backs have to go and cover him and then the full-back has to cover round, when you switch the ball quickly, it creates so much space for everyone just in behind him.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Over the last few weeks he has been showing that even more and if Arsenal go on to win the league and the Champions League, he\u2019ll be a major reason behind it, because that\u2019s where Arsenal have been short in the last few years.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I know he hasn\u2019t scored the goals Haaland has scored, but he has been really important for that Arsenal team and he will be a major factor if they do win the two of them.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>For now, all eyes will be on Manchester City as they look to pull within two points of Arsenal with a win against Crystal Palace on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>But if Pep Guardiola\u2019s side drop points, then Arsenal know that a win against Burnley on Monday will see them crowned champions before the final day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on <meta charset=\"utf-8\"\/><br \/>\n<strong>Facebook,\u00a0<\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Metro_Sport\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Man Utd chiefs make final recommendation on next Man Utd manager<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Casemiro makes Arsenal Premier League title claim with Real Madrid comparison<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Callum Wilson breaks silence on disallowed goal against Arsenal<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\">\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/> Wayne Rooney names Arsenal star who will be &#8216;major factor&#8217; in end-of-season run-in | Football<br \/>\n<br \/>#Wayne #Rooney #names #Arsenal #star #major #factor #endofseason #runin #Football<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney (Picture: Getty) Wayne Rooney believes that Viktor Gyokeres\u2019 performances&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[361,8322,8321,317,777,324,2972,3260,541,2971],"class_list":["post-10065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-arsenal","tag-endofseason","tag-factor","tag-football","tag-major","tag-names","tag-rooney","tag-runin","tag-star","tag-wayne"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271454852_1778673478.jpg",1200,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271454852_1778673478-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271454852_1778673478-300x158.jpg",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271454852_1778673478-768x403.jpg",640,336,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271454852_1778673478-1024x538.jpg",640,336,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271454852_1778673478.jpg",1200,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271454852_1778673478.jpg",1200,630,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271454852_1778673478-1024x538.jpg",1024,538,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271454852_1778673478-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/news678.top\/?cat=6\" rel=\"category\">Sports<\/a>","tag_info":"Sports","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}