Arsenal fans have been urged to stick by Viktor Gyokeres despite a damning statistic from his performance against Napoli.The centre-forward endured a difficult night on Wednesday as he made his first start of the season.Gyokeres has been defended after a difficult night against Napoli in the Champions LeagueGettyGyokeres had previously made just two substitute appearances across all competitions this term.However, following his 12-minute cameo against Chelsea on Sunday, he was thrown in from the start in the Champions League.Arsenal went on to claim a 1-0 victory in Italy, with Martin Odegaard scoring the only goal of the game.Gyokeres played 73 minutes before being replaced by Kai Havertz, having had just nine touches.Meanwhile, of Arsenal’s 26 shots in the match, none of them were by the Sweden striker.Gyokeres defendedEuropean football journalist Kevin Hatchard has defended Gyokeres, though, on the latest episode of the talkSPORT Daily podcast.Discussing his performance with Angelina Kelly, Hatchard admitted: “I feel for him because I thought it was odd that they signed him in the first place.“Not him specifically, but a number nine, because for exactly the reasons I’ve talked about with Havertz, because it’s not generally how Arsenal play.“He wants the ball nice and early when it’s in a counter-attack. He wants to be able to have open field that he can run at people, get the ball out of his feet and shoot. It’s not how Arsenal play.“They’re quite deliberate and they play one twos around the box. They do play some expansive stuff sometimes, but they’re all about control and they’re all about when they lose the ball, being in the right place, having that really good rest defence.Gyokeres had nine touches and no shots for the Gunners on Wednesday nightAFP“So by nature, they don’t like to open the game up that much and so I thought he did pretty well last season. He got 21 goals in all competitions.”Gyokeres joined Arsenal from Sporting Lisbon for £63.7million last summer, signing a five-year deal.Prior to the move, he had scored 97 goals in 102 matches during his time in Portugal.The 28-year-old has since found the net 21 times for the Gunners in 58 appearances across all competitions.Arsenal ‘need’ GyokeresGyokeres is yet to score in three outings this term, though, but was the club’s leading scorer in his debut season.Hatchard added: “He gets loads of stick. Look, is he a world class striker? No, no, he isn’t, but he got 20 goals for the Premier League champions, and he played a full role in them winning the Premier League because Havertz wasn’t fit very often.Gyokeres was handed his first start of the season against Napoli by ArtetaGetty“So you need a guy like that who’s going to back up. Look, if they’d signed Julian (Alvarez), you wouldn’t have seen him for dust. That’s the brutality.”Arsenal held talks with Atletico Madrid last month over a potential move for forward Julian Alvarez.The Argentina international was valued at £120million this summer amid interest from Barcelona.Whilst Arsenal were prepared to launch a move of their own, Alvarez informed the Gunners he did not want to join the club.As a result, Gyokeres remained at the Emirates Stadium to compete with Havertz for the centre-forward position.Gyokers’ futureHad Alvarez signed, though, Hatchard believes it would have spelled the end for Gyokeres’ Arsenal career.Hatchard has told Arsenal they ‘need’ Gyokeres, who finished as their top scorer last termGettyHe continued: “Viktor, who? Adios. He’d have been off to the Metropolitano, I imagine. That’s the brutality of it, but look, the guy had a decent World Cup with Sweden.“He’s won the Premier League. You can’t take that away from him. He did brilliantly for Sporting. He is what he is.“I think there’s an element of Arsenal not always playing to his strengths, but it’s one of those where you are not going to be able to play Havertz in every game. You’re just not because he’ll break down.“So you need to then think, right, if we’re at home to one of the weaker teams, do we then play Gyokeres in that game and make sure that we’re not running Havertz into the ground?“You’ve got (Mikel) Merino as an option as well. So I feel for him a little bit because I think he’s probably not far off what he can do, but I think they haven’t quite adapted to the kind of service he needs.”Gyokeres was an unused substitute against both Coventry City and Aston Villa before featuring off the bench against Chelsea.He also made a brief substitute appearance in the Community Shield win over Manchester City in August.Mikel Arteta’s side continue their Premier League title defence away against Sunderland on Saturday night, live on talkSPORT, kick-off at 8pm.