Why Kai Havertz suits Arsenal and Mikel Arteta after Chelsea struggles

The expectation was that the Germany international would return to the Bundesliga this summer to spearhead the Bayern Munich forward line after a disappointing spell with Chelsea.

There had even been talk that Real Madrid could move for the 24-year-old to replace the departed Karim Benzema.

It was something of a surprise when the Gunners made their move for him.

'Chelsea never thought about how to use him'

But as shown on countless occasions over recent seasons, Mikel Arteta favours playing profile ahead of player performance when it comes to recruitment.

For example, it is why he was more than happy to invest heavily in Aaron Ramsdale despite the shot-stopper suffering consecutive relegations prior to the switch to The Emirates.

If Arsenal move for a player, they have a clear plan for them.

Arteta has already signalled where he sees Havertz fitting into his team: “Kai is a player of top quality. He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield and variety to our play.”

Recent reports have expanded on this, revealing that Arsenal plan to use a midfield three made up of Havertz, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard next season.

He’s yet to kick a ball for the 2022/23 Premier League runners-up but they’ve already put more thought into how they are going to use the 6ft 4ins versatile attacker than Chelsea did at any point during his three years at Stamford Bridge.

Scattergun summer of 2020

Havertz joined the Blues during that 2020 summer window.

Chelsea raided the Bundesliga for Havertz and Timo Werner. Hakim Ziyech joined from Ajax, Thiago Silva made the switch from Paris Saint-Germain while the club parted with £45million to reportedly pip Manchester City to the signature of Ben Chilwell.

It was dubbed an era-defining window for the Blues and they did go on to win the Champions League, with Havertz scoring the winner, but looking back now, it was far from a successful summer of spending.

It was clear from the off that very little thought had been put into these signings.

Werner, for example, was at his best when paired with a strike partner at RB Leipzig. Ziyech was a left-footed right-winger and though Havertz had played a variety of roles for Bayer Leverkusen, he had spent the majority of time as a left-footed right-winger.

In his first game for the club, Frank Lampard effectively used Havertz as a right wing-back in the win over Brighton. Most of his touches were in his own half and he was receiving the ball close to the touchline.

At Leverkusen, he was able to drift in from the right and attack the penalty area.

He was a genuine goal threat for the German side, chipping in with 29 goals and nine assists across his final two Bundesliga campaigns, roughly 5,400 minutes. For context, he racked up 5,918 minutes in the Premier League for Chelsea across three seasons.

Lack of coaching consistency for Kai

There was hardly anything consistent about his time there either. Thomas Tuchel replaced Lampard and had a different vision for his compatriot.

Graham Potter eventually succeeded Tuchel and he deployed Havertz in a variety of roles before Lampard’s return.

All in all, the 24-year-old was averaging just 1,900 minutes per Premier League campaign but he was used as a centre-forward, as a false nine, on both wings, as an attacking midfielder and even as a midfielder on occasions.

The only constant about his time with Chelsea was that he was being shoehorned into the starting XI by every single manager.

It will be different at Arsenal.

Arteta has already played his part in developing Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard. The trio all had their best goalscoring seasons last term.

Another player to have his most productive campaign for the Gunners was Granit Xhaka.

The 30-year-old chipped in with seven goals from his new hybrid left-sided midfield role; the same number of goals scored by Havertz at Chelsea during 22/23.

'Arteta has a lot to work with'

Arteta will be able to scale the output of his latest signing and there’s a lot to work with.

Havertz once hit 17 goals in a single Bundesliga campaign.

He can score with either foot as well as his head. He is happy to make off-the-ball runs in behind but he’s just as adept at arriving late to finish off a move. He can be the focal point of an attack or simply be the player exploiting space around the final third.

There’s a lot to his game and this is what makes him such a reliable threat.

In the still above, Havertz has just walked his way into space as an attacking midfielder.

He’s initially in a deeper position but as soon as Leverkusen cut inside, he glides into the position between the two centre-backs. If they go on the outside, he plans to arrive late. If they cut inside, he wants to be central so he’s in a position to receive a pass or make a run in behind.

This move eventually ends with the ball being played into his feet and he turns into the space in the penalty area before chipping the goalkeeper.

With Oleksandr Zinchenko and Rice likely forming a double pivot when Arsenal are in possession, Havertz will have the freedom to occupy similar positions from his left-sided midfield role.

This time, Leverkusen attack the outside and Havertz makes a late run into the area to score a simple goal.

How many times did Odegaard ghost into similar areas last season to score from just inside the penalty area? It was something he worked on.

During the 2021/22 campaign, 60% of his shots arrived from outside the area but last season this figure dropped to 48%. He was taking a higher percentage of his attempts from better areas.

Arteta will likely look to recreate a similar sort of environment for Havertz to make the most of his goalscoring ability. He also gives Arsenal options in the final third given he can fill in for Saka at right-wing and Gabriel Jesus as a false nine.

It could well be a match made in heaven.

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