Mikel Arteta is delighted with Kai Havertz’s scintillating recent form, praising the Germany international’s growing impact on the team and backing him to become a 20-goal striker.
The 25-year-old was key to Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Southampton, taking the game by the scruff of the neck to lash home an equaliser off the post just as the visitors grabbed a foothold through Cameron Archer’s opener.
Havertz then, for want of a better term, ‘put himself about it’ winning duels all over the pitch as Arsenal blitzed the Saints into submission through goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka.
In his post-game press conference, Arteta reflected: “You can tell [his confidence has grown], he takes the ball and he runs with the ball. He’s on high press, he goes full gas, the way he holds the ball, the position he takes in the box.
“He’s an attacking midfielder, he plays as a nine, you don’t know where he is, that’s his football brain. His focus now is ‘I’m going to win the game, I’m going to do it’ and that’s a different thing.”
Arteta’s confidence in Havertz is clear, as he highlighted that the former Chelsea player has the ability to score 20 goals a season.
“When he’s practising, he wants more and he’s not satisfied with what he’s doing because there is still, I think, another level from him,” said the Spaniard.
“Obviously, he’s surrounded by incredible players but something has changed in him and that confidence, you really sense it and now he’s putting it into games and he’s winning football matches which is great.”
Even before the match, Arteta had told Arsenal.com: “He certainly has all the qualities and he certainly has the ambition to [score 20 goals a season].
“In the end, scoring goals sometimes are very small details and a lot of things have to go for you, but he’s got it and his mindset has changed a lot in regards to that. He certainly has ability to do it in my opinion.”
So far this season Havertz has six goals and one assist in 10 appearances. He’s also drawn level with Robin van Persie for the number of goals (7) scored in consecutive matches at Emirates Stadium. He’ll have the opportunity to break that record after the international break when the Gunners host Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League.
What a waste of 60 million! All he does is defend, press, pass and score! Should have bought someone who could do only one of those things.
I get a Henry story about Havertz. I mean play styles are very different. But just whole player with big hope’s coming up but joins the wrong team and loses confidence in the game and doesn’t know there best position.
But then we realise just don’t give him a positions, just send them out and let go where the game needs them!!
Orther clubs will tell us he over rated but deep down they fucking know this guy is a winner😄
I mean, Real Madrid and Bayern both wanted him so it was no secret this guy is good. Only Chelsea fans thought he was bad, and even they know deep down their club failed him, not the other way.
“Not liked by Chelsea fans” is generally a stamp of approval for me.
City got de Bruyne
Liverpool got Salah
We got Havertz
He is in that calibre of Chelsea rejects
Such a grafter, great to see him getting the love he deserves, COYG!!
Robin van Mercenary
Robin Van Perfidious.
Robin Van Traitor
Harsh I know, but I loved him which means I now hate him with equal passion
Robin van No Mates
He’s in front of Haaland for goals per minute this season, ignoring penalties. Happy for him to keep that going. A total beast if he improves!
Honestly, and I don’t want to jinx it, but at the pace he’s improving I don’t see why he couldn’t get to 25. For that you just need to add a couple of braces or hat tricks, and he’s showing right now he can score basically every type of goal, so why not? And that’s even before Martin O comes back and unleashes him even further.
Interestingly I had this conversation with a mate during the game on Tuesday. Kai doesn’t seem to do braces or hatricks (yet). My theory is that due to his football intelligence and selfless attitude towards the team, he probably alters his priorities a bit after he has got on the scoresheet (especially if it puts us in a winning position or increases our winning position). Much of the work he does for the team is not what forwards traditionally get praised for, so it is evident that he does not prioritise his own needs over the teams. This may hold… Read more »
I think this is insightful. With Kai it’s never been about talent, it’s about environment, confidence, mentality. He now has the environment and the confidence. All that’s standing between him and being that 20-30 goal striker is an alpha dog mentality. Needs to be more selfish in those positions, as you’ve said, and trust himself to hit it sweetly. Yesterday’s goal was exactly what I want to see him try more often.
That’s a good theory, I can definitely see how that might affect things too. But I think the principal reason he hasn’t done it yet with us is that he hasn’t had the mentality to love scoring and to feel like he can and should score every game, and both of those things he’s developed recently, along with his confidence to finish instinctively without overthinking it. And as you say the time to do it is usually vs lower opposition when we’re not being threatened too much, or in the rare cases of big matches where it’s a really open… Read more »
If he was someone who craved approval then he would be a very selfish player given what he has experienced; he is very team orientated despite what must be a burning desire to prove the doubters wrong and score as many as possible.
Managers dream
7 g/a in 10 games is a 70% contribution. If he plays, say 50 games this season and contributes 35 g/a we’d be absoluyely crying tears of joy.
If we could get Martinelli to be more consistent, and with the form Saka, Havertz, and Odegard coming back, we could be unstoppable. We just need Martinelli to keep up his game too and moving to the next level.
We’re all just hoping that Martinelli and his Orchestra will be a competent rival to The Saka Trio on the right. I’m having trouble keeping my skepticism about how great we’ll be once Merino starts working on the left – it really seems like he’s the last part of the puzzle to unlock the left wing. I’ve always loved Martinelli, and hated to see the flak he’s been getting (even though he has been underperforming). Seriously, if you’re getting up every morning trying to outshine Ødegaard-Saka-White, it’s hard not to be second best. But that’ll do me just fine. It’s… Read more »
If Kai can assume more of an alpha dog mentality and take those angry, determined shots when they’re there for him, like he did yesterday at 0-1, he will have no problem cracking 20 per season for this team. Don’t forget, he just turned 25, entering prime years for a CF.
That little nutmeg he did at pace last game on the half turn with his back to the player was top class.