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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has left Graeme Souness baffled over his decision to sign Kai Havertz in the summer. Havertz has split opinion during his Premier League career but has received the full support of Arteta despite a difficult start in North London.
The Gunners shelled out £65million to lure the Germany international from London rivals Chelsea. A couple of underwhelming displays had some fans writing off the attacker as a flop.
Havertz shone for Arsenal in their 4-0 thumping of PSV on Tuesday but that was not enough to convince Liverpool icon Souness that he is a good signing. The 70-year-old pointed out that four Chelsea managers have failed to get the best out of Havertz and has wished Arteta ‘good luck’.
“Not all of Arsenal’s spending makes sense to me. They’ve laid out £65million on Kai Havertz. Surely you’re not spending that kind of money on what he’s shown at Chelsea in the past three seasons?,” Souness wrote for the Daily Mail.
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“They’ve shelled out in the hope that Mikel Arteta can get a very, very different tune out of him than Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel or Graham Potter ever did. Good luck with that one, Mikel.
“We live in a world where stats have become a very popular part of the game for the anoraks. But historically only two stats provide a judgement in black and white terms. For a goalkeeper: how many games have you played and how many clean sheets did you keep?
“And for a striker: how many games have you played and how many goals did you score? Havertz has scored 19 Premier League goals across the entirety of three seasons for Chelsea. Please draw your own conclusions.”
Havertz was often used as a centre-forward by Chelsea but spent the formative years of his career as a midfielder for Bayer Leverkusen. Arteta has used the 24-year-old in both roles during his seven appearances for the North Londoners.
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Gabriel Jesus’s return from injury will likely see Havertz used most predominantly in midfield. He could feature in his first North London Derby when Arsenal host Tottenham at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
It comes after an impressive display against PSV in midweek, with Arteta waxing lyrical about Havertz’s performance. The Spaniard said: “He was really connected today in the game.
“It’s true I asked him to play two different roles in regards to the behaviours of the opponents and he’s so intelligent that he does it. It’s just finishing one or two actions that we had but it’s coming and he’s so willing to do it.”
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