Unfortunate relief due to injury
This weekend I found myself relieved with the absence of Thomas Partey from Arsenal’s starting line-up against Man United. Not because of his injury, I’m actually a big fan of Partey and prefer him in the starting 11.
This relief was because of the forced decision it left Arteta with, when it came to naming the back four of White, Gabriel, Saliba and Zinchenko.
The style of play, balance, and structure created a flow that seemed so much more comfortable. The creation of chances and just the overall vibe was much different, and the moment I saw the starting lineup announcement I instantly felt far more optimistic about such a huge fixture against United.
Now I will take the broken record & repetitive approach that I’ve stood by in my two previous pieces and make the ever so subtle note that Havertz once again put the Arse in Arsenal with another dreadful outing in my mind.
No doubt the pressure to perform has been heavy with him, and I’d love nothing more than to see a glimpse of the brilliance that the Arsenal brain trust sees! Yet the missed goal that was served up, in the box, on a silver platter, to the horrid weak ball giveaway that lead to the United goal…oof!
I expected his departure at the half-time to be quite honest.
Yet, in the end, fortune favoured our side and we brought it home in the nervous final moments and the 3 points from a massive game are ours.
I’m very proud of this team, and I hope Partey returns quickly and is back in match condition soon. And I hope it is in midfield that I see him when things are right as the back four selection of today was a comforting one to my eyes.
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Don’t give up on KH yet. I got the hunch….he would come on much stronger. It’s just nerves, for now. He would be fine and would start being a real threat to opposition, because he would be striking unexpectedly and his movements would be unpredictable, believe me.
It seems that yet another injury concern has forced MA into getting it right, just as it did when he had to play Martinelli.
Or maybe he was never going to try Partey as back against a supposedly top team???
We’ll never know
History says otherwise.
What history?????
Of him getting it right according to circumstances not by design.
That’s how you get 2nd in the league. Pure accident.
Talk about a hard head then. It seems about the only time he demonstrates a willingness to show any innovation in rotating his players, either an injury or a run of losses.
The players are obviously more accustomed to the inverted-LB tactic because they used it for one season, but it will be only a matter of time before they get used to have Partey in the inverted-RB position
As for Havertz’s mistake, let’s not crucify him further, to improve his confidence. Odegaard and Saka have also made fatal misplaced passes this season
I just hope Arteta won’t use Havertz wrongly as he did to Willian in 2020. He needs to maximize Havertz’s physicality
GAI let’s be clear because there are a lot of words being twisted to fit a narrative!
– Partey at RB worsens 2 positions, our midfield with him missing and our RB slot with Ben White missing (FYI BW is more than athletic enough to play the inverted RB whatever that is)
– MA is the one crucifying Havertz by forcing him to play when it’s clear to EVERYONE that he needs to be introduced slowly from the bench.
– Saka and Ode aren’t continuous underachievers so your comparison is illogical and simply ridiculous. Yes Havertz has been here for a very short time but that doesn’t change the FACT that he’s underperformed in every game.
– Willian was used wrongly by being in the starting 11 when his form and performances suggested otherwise, exactly like Havertz……both situations 100% on MA’s shoulders.
Glad the facts are cleared up now 🙂 very few people here hate Havertz, they just want to see him benched until he’s proved himself which is 100% fair. Arsenal > MA’s ego!
PJ-SA the points you make are your opinions,not facts as you claim. Of course everyone,including you,has the right to form opinions. The earth revolves around the sun-that is fact. Onions typically make people cry-fqct.Arsenal has 10 points so far in 23/24 season – that is also a fact. Like the point you make that “…it’s clear to EVERYONE that he needs to be introduced slowly…” It’s not clear to me and a few others I imagine so that can’t be a fact and merely your opinion which I respect even if I disagree with it.
He has underperformed in every game for us so far, even though it’s only a few games. Winning headers doesn’t mean he’s performing lol…this is the fact that I claimed, read it again if you need to!
Maybe I should’ve been clear, everyone that’s watched the games and understands.
So you think Havertz has done enough to warrant an automatic starting position over say our best performer in preseason being Trossard?
I watched the games and I thought Havertz has been decent in three games-that’s my opinion just like you have a different opinion.
Again “our best performer in preseason” is your opinion which not everyone will agree with. Trossard got his chance and didn’t do well last week imo. If you’ve been keen,you’ll notice that he prefers Trossard in the forward positions,not in midfield. It is okay to air your opinions,but to call your opinions facts or gospel truths and thinking you speak for everyone is just being absurd if not arrogant.
You don’t expect decent from a 65M and top earner player. If you have been following world football you would have seen that Havertz has been universally panned except by Arteta supporter who support him only because he is the manager’s choice. That is the only reason.
Those aren’t facts. We won three games and drew one with Havertz in the starting lineup
No matter how disgruntled we are as fans with Havertz we shouldn’t hate the player but hate his performance. I”ll keep saying their is a good player in Havertz though the guy needs to probably work harder in training and outside training. May be Arteta and his coaches need to have personal training with him, he can also be tried in cup games in other positions. He shouldn’t be a waste of 65m. I remain positive about Havertz not easy though.
If I were Arteta, I would’ve instructed Havertz to press with our CF and told Odegaard to lob the ball to Havertz’s head
The guy would be more useful in the final-third
Gai,He missed a seater in the final third. And of all the Conner kicks he had no 2 headers that’s up to him and not Arteta
Has anyone said they hate harvetz?
How can you not see it. We have some how won these 10 points because other 10 players played way better that 11 of other teams to cover for Havertz sluggishness. Even from Match 1 if Arteta had played Smith Rowe instead of Havertz then arsenal would have collected all 12 points. These 4 were the easy games (Yes this current united team is midtable mediocre team). Even After selling their better players Briton is equal to Arsenal
I disagree.
Havertz has not been as influential as we would like, but I don’t believe he has been as downright terrible as you suggest.
I also disagree that these were easy games. Each presented its own set of challenges and others will too. There are some that are likely to be more challenging e.g. Liverpool, MC but that’s all one can be fairly certain about at this stage of the season.
I was replying to “Those aren’t facts. We won three games and drew one with Havertz in the starting lineup”.
All i am saying is if Smith rowe had played instead of Havertz then result would have been same or little better. At this moment Smith rowe is better than Havertz.
Regarding your comments in order, PJSA:
– agree
– agree
– agree
– agree
lol. Frustrating the heck out of me. Vieira gets phased and we are now reaping the benefits, yet Havertz’s confidence is dipping further every game he starts. Probaly Kai himself even wants to be benched.
Makes no sense. All I can say as small mitigation for Arteta is that all great managers were stubborn and opinionated, and failures were often too easily swayed by opinions. Let’s hope!
Well said.
Why do you cling on to this “Harvetz is not so bad thing”.. The guy is clearly trash… Whats so special about him that he gets preferential treatment when he is underperforming… What,besides the outrageous price tag, has he done to merit a place in the team.. He was more of a profligate passenger again yesterday.. At what point do you accept he is a failure… How many games exactly
Many people failed to see anything good in Xhaka and Vieira, yet they proved otherwise. I saw a towering AM in his prime with international experience who wasn’t used properly
Thats what people are suggesting to Bench Havertz for now, and let him train and understand teammates in practice and come back with a bang like Viera. we can not train him an actual match.
GAI.
You keep on repeating that KAI is physical, good in the air etc, I don’t get it. He is neither of the above.
Did you see the Man U Danish new signing that came on and MA had to bring on Toni to help Gabriel to handle him, now that is physicality. As for players good in the air, look at stats you will find them. KAI is no where near good players in the air.
Excuse me, but did you say HAVERTZS “physicality”!? What “physicality ” would that be then?
All I see is a complete LACK of all physicality!
Well, maybe we would have had the same back 4 even if Partey was available?
I believe Partey was an experiment, while Zinchenko wasn’t fully fit and because he had to find another inverted back, once Timber got injured.
Odegaard and Saka have also single handedly won games for us. I think I can speak for All Arsenal fans when I say we want him to succeed! Unfortunately what we saw yesterday and going on his chelsea career we have concerns. And what makes it worse is we have some incredible players on the bench having to sit there while the manager could be trying to force a square peg in a round hole. Just want to say Declan Rice was amazing yesterday and the previous games and is WORTH everything we paid for him. (Who wanted onana over him) Reiss Nelson looked really good when he came on! I’m excited to see him get some game time!
Reiss Nelson ups the intensity to an insane degree every time he comes on. He’s so good at pushing us into the final third. Glad his contributions aren’t going unnoticed.
He Pre- Assisted Jesus goal.
O boy what what an assist by Viera …,that should be 3 assists already as a Sub,Brilliant …
Can’t he play ahead of Kai❓
A winning goal in injury time doesn’t tell the whole story. We were superior in every department and if we had a clinical finisher it would have been done and dusted a lot earlier. Man U’s playing out from the back was a joke, twenty plus passes and they were still in the 18 yard box!!! If I had any criticism we should have pressed higher in the early part of the match because they looked vulnerable at the back. We looked solid, compact and dynamic and in contrast they looked disjointed. On this showing they don’t look top 4 to me so one less to worry about. Based on what I’ve seen so far (early days) my top 4: Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham but not necessarily in that order because it is the EPL we are talking about!!! Last years’ high flyers, Newcastle, are already in trouble whereas we are still contenders and should remain so.
Havertz needs some time off the limelight for his own good. The amount of criticism is just crazy. I honestly don’t understand Arteta’s thinking. You have a new player so low on confidence, still out of sync with the rest of the players, yet you insist on sending him out there to get slaughtered? There’s a good player in there but this is not the way to go about it. Kai should be given ample time to acclimatize, get used to Gabi’s runs in training, get to develop a deep understanding of players’ moves and passes in training. It’s the only logical thing to do. Pep does it with some of his new signings, Klopp and Ancelotti do it too. So what’s so different about Arteta that he can’t acknowledge such simple truths? Havertz needs time. He’s not ready for first team football at the moment and it shows.
That’s too much of a simple solution to the enigma that is Kai Havertz.
MA would prefer to crucify the poor boys Arsenal career instead of taking him out of the limelight for his own good.
Haverthwaite just needs a goal to get him going believe the quality is definitely there looks like a confidence thing but if he can score a couple of goals on the bounce then really believe he will prove his worth far to early to write him off after just 4 games!
Who is Haverthwaite? If you meant HAVERTZ, THEN WHY NOT SAY SO?
Spell checker Jon… lol
What a pity that folk with English as first language cannot even spell a word that they see used all the time on this site.
If they need as spell checker for our players names, then they are not much of a fan, I SUGGEST.
I assume MARK has English as first language.
If he does not, then I APOLOGISE TO HIM.
Replying to Mark
Where did you see the quality bro lol
If Arteta wants to give Havertz time on the pitch, maybe he should do it in the League Cup and FA cup games, to let him get his confidence back.
Playing him in the EPL is just making him worse.
Now, for a bigger worry. We have no replacement for Partey.
Jorginho will be touted as a great back-up, but there will be teams we play against where he will be too slow, or not robust enough.
Or worse, it will give Arteta a reason to continue playing Havertz.
We have just got our shit together, let’s hope Arteta recognizes that…..
In my opinion, Kai is very good in positioning and tactically know what MA want him to do on the pitch, but the nerve is still there as he need to adapt to a new environment. If he not miss the sitter against United surely it can boost his confidence. I think Kai do all the correct thing during training. That why MA still have faith with him. But surely he need to be bench and slowly integrated in to the team. Put ESR or even Jesus into that box to box position. Just my 2 cent opinion
Thomas Partey played in the first 3 games as RB because Zinchenko was injured. It got worse with Timber’s devastating injury. So Arteta was testing the waters. We must have an inverted fullback at least from one side to control the midfield. Tomiyasu and Kiwior can play as one of course but Partey is way better than both of them at the moment.