Chelsea didn't know how to use Kai Havertz, Arsenal do

Sam McGuire

• 28 Jun 2023 20:12 BST
• 4 min read

Kai Havertz wasn't exactly a roaring success for Chelsea following his €80 million move to Stamford Bridge in September 2020, so why were Arsenal so desperate to sign the 24-year-old?

The simple truth is that Chelsea didn't give Havertz the environment needed to succeed in the Premier League. He isn’t the only player to suffer this fate. The Blues spotted an opportunity during that particular summer window to go on something of a spending spree while others cut back due to the uncertainty surrounding finances during the pandemic.

They spent big on Havertz, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Ben Chilwell and Thiago Silva that summer. On paper, it looked great for them but the playing profiles of a number of players just didn’t seem to mesh very well.

READ MORE: Premier League 2023/24 summer transfers: All the Done Deals

For example, Christian Pulisic and Werner occupied similar areas, as did Havertz and Ziyech. Werner thrived for RB Leipzig alongside more of a traditional centre-forward while Havertz was at his best for Bayer Leverkusen primarily as an attacking midfielder in a 4-2-3-1.

Chelsea have repeated the same mistakes in the following transfer windows. Throwing money at a number of players and hoping someone can find a way to balance everything.

This had quite an impact on Havertz’s development.

As had the managerial changes and the deployment of the Germany international.

He played under Frank Lampard twice, Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter and each manager had a different way of playing and this meant Havertz’s role kept changing. The former Bayer Leverkusen man was a square peg in multiple round holes with managers just shoehorning him into their XI.

In his final two campaigns at the BayArena, Havertz scored 29 goals and chipped in with nine assists across 5,363 minutes. In his three seasons in the Premier League, the 6ft3 forward has 19 goals and seven assists in his 5,918 minutes. That stat alone should add context to the situation.

At Bayer, he was appearing in 2,700 minutes per season in a regular position. He was playing consistently and his output was fairly reliable. For Chelsea, it was a different story entirely. The Blues gave him just 1,900 minutes per Premier League campaign and he was deployed in a variety of roles - turning out as a centre-forward, as a false-nine, a right-winger, a left-winger, an attacking midfielder and even as a midfielder. There was nothing consistent about his spell at Stamford Bridge, so why was there an expectation that his performances would be?

Reports earlier this month claimed a move to Real Madrid was on the cards as the Spaniards scrambled to replace the departed Karim Benzema. However, the fact Chelsea were open to parting ways with the left-footed attacker piqued the interest of Arsenal.

The Blues haven’t been able to strike a new deal with their No29 and with just two years left on his contract, they felt forced to sell him in an effort to balance the books. Arsenal matched Chelsea's asking price of £65m for the versatile forward, with Havertz happy to move to the Emirates.

Arsenal need to add depth to their squad this summer as they plan for life in the Champions League. At a glance, there might not be an obvious fit for Havertz in the team but his profile seems well suited to a team that likes to put the ball back into the area. One of his biggest strengths at Leverkusen was his ability to ghost into the box and finish. You can see Mikel Arteta making the most of that.

There’s been some talk that Havertz might replace Granit Xhaka as a right-sided centre-midfielder but if he was to replicate what the Swiss midfielder did, he’d be doing a lot of work in wider areas and this isn’t where you want him.

He’s likely coming in as an alternative to Gabriel Jesus, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka. He isn’t as direct as the latter as a right-winger but his off-the-ball movement means he’s a goal threat from those wide areas. Havertz can play the false-nine role like Jesus and he can be a goalscoring creator just like the Arsenal captain, Odegaard.

Judging Havertz on his Chelsea form is pointless given they’ve never known how to use him. His playing profile is much more important than his form since moving to the Premier League. Arteta has shown he can get players firing and the German possesses a lot of ability that just needs to be harnessed properly.