Was Havertz the missing link against West Ham?
Arsenal walked away bitterly defeated on Thursday night as we welcomed West Ham to The Emirates. Coming into the second last game of the year, every point was important and a win would have taken us back to the top of the table going into the last game of the season away a Fulham.
One thing led to another and Arsenal were some how outclassed after having 30 shots on goal, but couldn’t manage to find the back of the net, meanwhile West Ham had 6 shots and managed to bag two goals from them.
Kai Havertz was missing from action after receiving a 5th yellow card of the season against Liverpool and was suspended from Thursday nights game, and for me, he was a huge loss for Mikel Arteta’s system. Havertz had a somewhat hard start to life at Arsenal and took a while to settle in, but then after he was handed the ball to take a penalty against Bournemouth, he has seemed to really settle in.
Making an impact when starting and when coming off the bench, I think his energy would have gone a long way on Thursday night. Havertz has recently come on and been the difference in games where Arsenal looked to be really struggling and we could have really used a player like him. We looked to be getting out fought by height in the box and with someone of his height a goal poaching ability, he could have been a real asset in front of goal.
If you told me a year ago, that I would be sitting here and saying that we missed Kai Havertz and we would have been a better team with him, I wouldn’t believe you, but he’s become an important part of this squad and although his transfer was questioned by a lot of people, he seems to have been able to prove the doubters wrong.
For me Havertz is better in the midfield, helping to build up play, link up the midfielders with the attacks and works very hard to recover the ball when needed, but I’ve also noticed that when he is scoring, he’s scoring from centre forward positions. He always seems to be in the right spot at the right time, to just tap the ball in, and with our attacking line being a bit all over the place right now, he’s been a huge boost when going forward.
Do I think if we had him in the squad, we might not have lost? Maybe, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. But I do think it will shine a light on what he has been doing at the club and the impact he is able to make. Even when he can’t find the net himself, he seems to be able to find a way to create them.
What’s your thoughts Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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