Neither Alexander Isak nor Viktor Gökeres helped the plight of their respective clubs’ fans with arguments over whether playing for Sweden during the international break was a huge waste of money and space. They both played every minute against Switzerland on Friday and against Kosovo on Monday…but they weren’t sausages.
Sweden currently sit at the bottom of Group B with one point. Since becoming a member of UEFA in 2016, Kosovo have only beaten one other team in their 22 World Cup qualifying matches, beating Georgia 1-0 in 2021. Apart from this year’s home and away wins against the Swedish national team and a famously failed striker.
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Gökeres joined Arsenal as one of Europe’s most prolific goalscorers. He topped the 2024 rankings with 52 goals, but after his £55m move to the Emirates, he scored just three goals in 14 games for club and country, leaving him behind Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane in the 2025 rankings. These goals came against Leeds and Nottingham Forest.
Flat track or not, Gokeres appears to be something of a bully, at least in the Premier League, while Alexander Isak, who has played nine games for club and country this season and scored one goal against Southampton, appears to be more of a victim of distress.
The little fiddler will be sent off at Newcastle after refusing to train or play in an attempt to force a move from St James’s Park to Liverpool, but it appears the lack of pre-season resulting from a falling tool has him amputated at the knee.
There are arguments that Gokeres has improved Arsenal on the basis of occupying defenders and prolonging games even when he’s not scoring goals, but there’s no way to have a similar positive impact to Isak’s at Liverpool. His return coincides with a mini-crisis for the Reds that has seen the Gunners rise to the top of the table.
Isak hit the target twice out of seven shots against Switzerland and Kosovo, while Gökeres hit the keeper just once out of four attempts. If they don’t show dramatic improvement after a frankly awful start to the season, they may blame the Ducks for their lack of service, as supporters at club level will continue to try for as long as is reasonable before accepting that they are not fit for purpose.
But they have Anthony Elanga and Lucas Bergvall behind them, so they don’t have to defend themselves offensively. And ladies and gentlemen, this is Kosovo. Two of the three centre-backs have a combined market value of £1.3m, while the third, Albian Haidari, is only playing his second game for his country.
They should have been torn apart by perhaps the world’s most feared striker partnership, but instead they were barely threatened by Isak and Gökeres. They will return to Liverpool and Arsenal with somehow even lower confidence than when they left to resume the battle for flop supremacy.
