Viktor Gyokeres was replaced by Kai Havertz at the 65-minute mark of Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Lille on Tuesday night.

It was another frustrating evening for the Swede, who once again failed to register a shot on target. Arsenal looked a different side after he was subbed off, scoring all three of their goals in the last half-hour. Theo Walcott believes one of his former club’s attackers clearly benefitted from that change.

Speaking on BBC’s Football Daily, the former Arsenal winger ran through the impact of Mikel Arteta’s substitutions and made a telling observation that doesn’t bode well for Gyokeres.

“Martin Odegaard is brilliant, he’s been absolutely fantastic,” Walcott said. “He’s the orchestra, he just kind of gets them going. The intensity shows when he comes on, it just lifts everyone’s game. I mean, Madueke, I felt was very positive tonight.

“You know, he wore out the defence and Eze looked happier when Viktor Gyokeres went off. It just seemed a bit different when Havertz was there and he could come deeper and then kind of link a bit differently. And that’s been the pattern.”

Eberechi Eze looked more comfortable after Viktor Gyokeres went off

It was a big night for Eberechi Eze. He didn’t get on the pitch at all against Leeds at the weekend, with Noni Madueke preferred on the left, and Tuesday was only his third start of the season. With Christos Tzolis out injured for a few weeks, this was his chance to make a case.

For an hour, it didn’t look like going to plan. Eze was well dealt with by 18-year-old Maxime Goffi and Arsenal couldn’t find a way through. Then the substitutions came, and he met a Bukayo Saka cross to score his first goal of the campaign.

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Eze is at his best when there is a central presence willing to drop in and combine with him, and that is Kai Havertz in a nutshell. Viktor Gyokeres, however, doesn’t really offer that sort of dynamic, which can leave Eze working into space nobody else is occupying.

As Walcott points out, there is a pattern with Arsenal simply not playing as well with Gyokeres on the pitch. It’s not a one-off; fans have seen it repeatedly now.

Saka, meanwhile, rounded things off with Arsenal’s third, a goal that took him to within one of Walcott himself on the club’s all-time Champions League scoring list.