Mikel Arteta says he’s very pleased with the contributions of Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz although he admits the latter needs to improve in front of goal.
Trossard took his tally for the season to five goals when he opened the scoring against Sevilla on Wednesday night and he’s overall proved a handy squad addition since arriving from Brighton in January.
“I’m really happy with him,” replied Arteta when asked about Trossard in his pre-Burnley press conference.
“Obviously, it’s been almost a year since he joined us, we knew all his quality and what he could bring to the team and that’s why we bought him, because he can fill different positions, but as well different needs and qualities that we didn’t have in the squad when we want to do something different, and against Sevilla he showed again his quality.”
The jury is out on whether Havertz was a good purchase by the Gunners. The Germany international has looked laboured in the first part of the season leading many to believe Arteta overpaid Chelsea when he parted with £65 million. Given the steep price tag, the player’s performances are regularly under the microscope.
Asked whether he thinks there’s unwarranted pressure on the summer arrival, Arteta said: “I don’t know. I can tell you that I’m really pleased with the way he’s performing.
“Obviously, looking at the numbers, just specifically the numbers of what he’s producing in front of goal, those have to be improved and we have to improve them, but in many other areas of the pitch, what he gives to the team at the moment is really important.”
Both Havertz and Trossard are likely to feature in Saturday’s match against Burnley with Arsenal struggling with injuries to several key players.
For the latest team news update, click here.
Havertz is still a long way from top form, but I need to stop thinking of his as a centre forward if Arsenal use him in midfield. Newcastle and Sevilla were greatly improved performances.
He’ll still need to score some goals at some point though.
Nobody cares if McAllister at liverpool or Mathias Nunes at city score goals. Havertz has to outscore Haaland to justify his signing.
That said he needs to chip in with a few every now and then to match his improved performances and the inevitable red card(s) the PGMOL will give him to make up for his tackle at Newcastle and also Guimares assault on Jorginho. Because that’s how they operate. From now on Kai is a marked man while Bruno is exonerated
If you look just before Bruno’s forearm smash on Jorginho, he makes a wild lunge like Kai. It should have been a “Martinelli” double yellow.
He didn’t see a red mist he saw a red tsunami. Completely lost his mind and I’m still fuming he wasn’t sent off. The worst part is somehow players like him won’t get the appropriate thug label for some reason. Players like Xhaka who was 1/10th as bad as Bruno was dogged by “violent player” label for his whole time here. pgmol just decides they don’t like certain players and that’s the end of it. Wonder if their lenience on Bruno has to do with their ties to SA. Why would they jeopardize their opportunity to ref in SA? An… Read more »
I think he needs a goal from open play. Once he has that he’ll probably take a few more risks. He was outstanding at Leverkusen, he was one of the best young players in the world so we know there’s more to him than we’ve seen so far. But as you say, scoring from midfield and from CF are entirely different tasks.
I’ve always thought Havertz will be absolutely fine. In my mind, footballers need three things – talent, attitude and coaching. The talent is absolutely unarguably there. His highlight reel is scary. And I have absolutely no questions about his attitude. Tuchel was desperate to resign him. He works hard. He’s committed. He never stops running. And with Mikel, he will get top, top coaching. Rice has said already how much he has improved his game. I’m not saying we’ll see it overnight. It might even take a season. But I’m just not worried, nor ever have been, that Havertz is… Read more »
In other news, I started a list of Arsenal player biscuits.
Here’s how far I got:
Amaury Biscoff
That’s it.
Tomas party rings and at a stretch Gabbibaldi,
ooh I want in… lets see
Henri Cadbury
Bukayoscotch shortbreads
Tomás Raisincooky
Lee Twixon
Twixery Henry
Anelcupcakes
Baklava Saka
Reiss’s Nelsonbutter Cups
Declan Nice
Eddie McVities Goldrick Bar… whatever.
Francis Jaffer Cakes
Gerviennese Whirl
Trosstard Creams
Alan Ball’s Ginger Nuts
I give up.
Let the “Gold Bars are not a biscuit and nor are Jaffa Cakes” debate begin.
Excellent work with Trosstard Creams
We should have made the ultimate signing of Sergio Biscuits.
who’s the fun-vacuum down voting all of these? ha ha.
Granola Choca
Odebar
Manu Petit Beurre
do executives count?
Chips Keswick
“Oh Henry” bar
Theo’s Walnut Cuts
Not a biscuit per se but…
Reiss’ pieces
Chef Ramsey’s Biscuit
I’ll say the last two performances have been very encouraging. He took it to Newcastle and based off his character and lackadaisical attitude on the pitch up until then that was not expected. He was much more involved in attack in that game and it repeated against Sevilla. I’d still very much like to see him try more with the ball as he’s still too conservative in possession and (not) taking players on, but I like the improvements over the last two games. Hence, why I expect he’ll start again on the weekend. An open play goal would do him… Read more »
Agree, not sure if he’ll ever be the type of guy who really takes players on but his passing was much more creative and less conservative from that right 8/10 position. I’d really like to see him play there with Odegaard on the pitch too to set him up, is it really too much to ask to try Ode at the left 8 too, having tried everyone else already? I know we lose a bit of his shooting from that position but I just think he could be such a brilliant creative engine for us there, and we have so… Read more »
Wishful thinking at best.. ok i get every player brought in needs a bed in time but for a £60 + mil international signing you are seriously saying it might take a whole season for him to be the player who Miki thought he would be, not that i thought he would be oven ready from the get go but he’s performances since day 1 have been cold turkey, i really haven’t seen him set anyone up, play a forward decisive pass, or take any chances given to him, i asked my chelsea mate what he thought about him, he… Read more »
Exactly. He seems to get a free pass from a lot of fans and I don’t know why…he’s been absolute dog shit from day one. No idea why we bought him – he was terrible for Chelsea. We have no clue where to play him. He finally put a few tackles in against Newcastle and looked interested for once, other than that what exactly has he done to earn his place in the team? Arteta says he’s really happy with him, why?! He gives us nothing.
He’s back to his blunt best today
re. Havertz I don’t know what “quality” you see there but what I see is a player who kicks ball without any conviction, who is very slow to turn , doesn’t know how to tackle (hence his dangerous stupid fouls) , he’s easily pushed over and generally disappears over long period of times during games. And this was also during his time at Chelsea, so I guess this is who he is. I trust Arteta and he seems to trust in Kai a lot but I’m afraid he will be a flop. No need to repeat Pepe mistake: just because… Read more »
would recommend you to sell!
He seems to be improving so let’s see how far he can go.
I agree that so far he’s looked a poor signing and really short on confidence.
This season we definitely look more solid defensively, and some of the credit has to go to Havertz and Rice. We look more organized and solid without the ball. Going forward I feel we are a bit off this season. The injuries to Jesus have not helped, but I feel we don’t move the ball quickly enough up front, we tend to always attack from the wings which makes us predictable, we send in too many hopeless crosses in the box with no real areal presence, and we don’t shoot enough. If we can improve our attacking focus we can… Read more »
What credit goes to Havertz?! Wow.
I know the jury is still out on weather Harvertz is a good signing as blogs wrote above but I’ve already made peace within regarding my expectations from him.
We really haven’t seen anywhere near enough from havertz; if Pepe is considered a flop based on his price tag (only 7 mil more) at least he had some end product! Not really sure what Havertz has added tbh – more like subtracted! I would trade him back for Xhaka in a heartbeat.
Or Pepe 😉
– Drop Havertz
– Make Rice captain
– Play Ramsdale
Sell Havertz you mean.
He’ll never do that.
Hope Kai scores at the weekend. I want to hear that chant ringing around the Emirates
Do you reckon Arteta actually believes the things he says in these things?
Last night I had a dream that Havertz scored a scrappy goal from a corner. Premonition? Perhaps. The result of 5 beers before a 4am start? Definitely.