Kai Havertz says he’s really enjoying his role at Arsenal, playing in a completely different style to his former club Chelsea.
Kai Havertz hasn’t taken too long to get going with Arsenal, after signing for the club from Chelsea this summer.
Playing in midfield for Mikel Arteta’s side, Havertz has already netted a couple of pre-season goals, scoring against the MLS All-Star team and FC Barcelona.
A midfield role isn’t anything new to Havertz, given he played in the middle more often than not for Bayer Leverkusen. But it’s certainly a change from his time at Chelsea.
According to Havertz himself, it’s a change for the better.
“I really enjoy it, to play in this position,” Havertz said. “I am more on the ball, I am more integrated in the game. I think I have a lot of room to improve – I am still adapting. [But] so far it is working quite well.
”Obviously it is a completely different style of football than what we played at Chelsea. I think it is a style that suits me very well.
“Of course, it always takes a bit of a while to get used to that. I have been here for two and a half weeks. It is going to take some time, but I am giving everything to try to perform on a high level.”
Mikel Arteta told the media this week that it’s inevitable the team need to figure out the right balance in the middle. But he rejects suggestions that Havertz replacing Xhaka means Arsenal will be less physical.
“We’re going to have to find the right balance as well, but a year ago, Granit (Xhaka) could never play as an attacking midfielder,” Arteta pointed out.
“So let’s try to get the work done. We played with four players inside [on tour], three of them they’d never played for us. So three out of four, they never played together ever.
“If I put Granit and Kai and I ask you ‘Who is more physical?’ what would you say? Granit? The other one is 1.91m! So it depends on what is ‘physical’.
“Physical is to run, to run in behind, to run forward, to tackle… It depends.
“We will fit him (Havertz) within the qualities that we have, that’s for sure.”
Despite some indications against Manchester United that Arsenal’s new-look midfield might need time to adjust, the Barcelona game showed the potential pay-off if they can get things right.
The Gunners scored five goals on the night, but they could easily have had more. Bukayo Saka could have scored four on his own, most notably missing a penalty.
If Arsenal can make themselves even more of an attacking threat than last season’s 88-goal league campaign, that will surely put them in a great position to fight at the top of the table.