There will be many trying to erase their previous criticisms of Kai Havertz because he is now proving a lot of people wrong as Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal push for the Premier League title.
On Saturday, with the chance to go top of the Premier League table, Arsenal fans would have been fearing the worst when there were less than ten minutes left on the clock and Brentford were level at 1-1.
But that’s when Arsenal’s newly-found match-winner and big-game player – Kai Havertz – stuck his chest out and scored a crucial headed goal for his side.
Owen Hargreaves was lauding the 24-year-old for his efforts and how he is such a ‘super player’ for Mikel Arteta, as he told Premier League Productions (11/03/24 at 2:30 pm).
The former Bayern Munich midfielder also thinks the German international has made some ‘big decisions’ in his career, including joining Chelsea from Bayer Leverkusen and then moving to the Emirates.
Even though he won the Champions League trophy at Stamford Bridge, life ended in a sour note for the player and there was more negativity than positivity around his summer transfer.
But Owen Hargreaves was adamant that the call to move to Arsenal was ‘even tougher’ and ‘brave’ after he also spoke about what is proving to be his ‘downfall’.
‘Brave’ Kai Havertz
“I think he is a super player,” said Hargreaves. “If you watch football players and critique them and you watch him, and don’t see a good football player, then I worry for you. The only problem with him is that he doesn’t have a set position. That’s his only downfall.
“He is so versatile and he can play in so many positions that he keeps drifting everywhere, and to his own detriment – I think people confuse his body language, with being quite chilled and relaxed, with kind of not being competitive.
“If you look at his career path, leaving Leverkusen to go to Chelsea. That’s a big move for a young kid in lockdown. He could have gone to Bayern and had it easy. He went to Chelsea, it was tough and Chelsea turned out to be a bit of a mess.
“Then he makes an even tougher move to go across to Arsenal. That tells you everything you need to know, forget his body language. He makes big decisions for a young kid and I think that is a brave decision, which I think is quite rare for somebody of that age.”
Kai Havertz hitting his best form
That winner against Brentford was the fourth consecutive Premier League game Havertz has scored in and further proof that he is now hitting the best form of his career.
Things will get better, but this is the versatile forward in full stride and starting to enjoy the centre-forward role that has been provided to him.
The one area he will want to improve on is in the Champions League because he only has one goal to his name for the Gunners this campaign.
And given that Arsenal are trailing Porto 1-0 heading into the 2nd leg on Tuesday night, then this is Havertz’s chance to take his game a step further.
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