What happened to Kai Havertz?
The Germany international put pen to paper on a move to north London in the summer transfer window, coming as one of their quartet of marquee arrivals.
Alongside Havertz, Arsenal signed England international star Declan Rice for a club-record £105 million fee, while versatile defender Jurrien Timber and goalkeeper David Raya joined the aforementioned duo.
Over his opening three Premier League games, though, Havertz has arguably failed to impress on-lookers with zero goals or assists to his name.
This has led to criticism from some members of the English media, like ESPN pundit Craig Burley, who absolutely slammed the Havertz's performance against Fulham last weekend.
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"There is nothing in this Kai Havertz performance or performances that suggest that this player is any different, not one iota from the player who was performing for Chelsea," said Burley (via Tribal Football).
"The only difference is he's wearing a red shirt.
"He's still got no confidence, he's still not influencing games, he's still giving the ball away, he's still not getting in the right positions at the right time. He made one or two good runs in the first half.But at the moment, there's a £70m burning problem in Arteta's pocket, because, in my opinion, he's going to have to drop him. Arsenal are a better side without him in the team."
It hasn't exactly been the dream start for Havertz, especially going by comments like this from Burley, but Arteta has urged patience with the winger.
Indeed, Arsenal's head coach says the 24-year-old has shown his quality in training day in, day out - with the former Bayer Leverkusen star's work ethic particularly impressing.
“I’ll tell you what I feel about him, that I love him and I see his qualities every day in training," said Arteta (via talkSPORT).
"His work rate is excellent, a lot of the things he does at the front of the team is so good.
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“The visual one, the one with the stats, is what is missing at the moment, to put the ball in the net and to arrive on those and have a different impact on the game, but for the rest, it’s there.
“It’s difficult to ask, especially our people in our stadium and our supporters, for more, but my feeling is, give him love and we will get the best out of him.”
How good is Kai Havertz?
The forward, while arguably failing to impress with Chelsea last season too, did in fact finish the 2022/2023 campaign as their top goalscorer in the English top flight.
Havertz, for Arsenal, has so far completed their third-highest rate of key passes per 90 in the final third - sitting just behind the likes of Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard in that regard (WhoScored).
His versatility as a potential false nine option, while also being able to play out wide, could be another particularly attractive trait for Arteta - and we believe he has plenty of time to come good.
Ahead of a long season, where Arsenal will be looking to compete with Man City for the title again, Havertz may well prove to be a very useful asset.
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