Journalist Mark Ogden has now spoken out about how one Arsenal star has managed to silence his doubters at the Emirates Stadium this season.
Kai Havertz was a divisive signing upon his arrival at Arsenal.
Many Arsenal fans had their doubts about Havertz when the club opted to shell out £65 million to prise him away from Chelsea in the recent summer transfer window. In his time at Stamford Bridge, the German failed to ever really shine on a consistent basis, and he was clearly very short on confidence when he first came to Arsenal.
Havertz came in for plenty of criticism in his early days at Arsenal, as he struggled to impose himself on matches and looked somewhat lost in Mikel Arteta’s tactical system, as the Spanish coach sought to reinvent him as an attacking midfielder, rather than a striker.
In a survey of football agents conducted by The Athletic in September, Havertz was voted the worst signing of the summer.
Gradually, though, the 24-year-old has found his feet in north London. He has battled his way into form, and for the last couple of months he has looked like an integral member of Arteta’s team, as he has rotated between being used as a midfielder and a false-nine figure to lead the line.
Kai Havertz gets the Arsenal crowd behind him
Havertz achieved a personal first in the Premier League against Brentford last time out, as he grabbed a vital winner for the Gunners late on, which sent them to the top of the Premier League table for the first time since Christmas. He has now scored in his last four league outings on the bounce, and has matched his best very Premier League goalscoring season from his time at Chelsea with ten games left to play. So far this season for Arsenal, across all competitions, he has racked up nine goals and three assists.
Arteta now needs Havertz to maintain this kind of form for the rest of the season. The Gunners’ next two matches will play a huge role in defining their season. On Tuesday they will take on Porto in the second-leg of their Champions League round of 16 clash. After that, next time out in the Premier League, they will travel to the Etihad Stadium to face title rivals Manchester City. If Havertz can make a telling contribution in these two games then the decision to sign him in the summer will look like a masterstroke on Arsenal’s part.
Mark Ogden already feels that Havertz has discredited many of his critics, and has now likened him to former Arsenal star Mesut Ozil and Manchester United icon Dimitar Berbatov in one aspect of his game.
Speaking on the Football Daily podcast, he said, “the Arsenal fans, certainly earlier this season, just weren’t having him at all. They were getting on his back and asking for him to be taken off the pitch. There are times when he’s got a bit of Dimitar Berbatov about him, and Mesut Ozil, on a good day that’s great but on a bad day it’s not and he looks like he’s not really interested, but that’s just his kind of body language, it’s his style…He’s got a real track record for scoring goals in big games. Champions League final, world club cup final – he delivers when it matters…the Arsenal fans aren’t complaining about him now.”
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