This weekend marks the start of the 2024–25 Premier League season and I am going to confidently predict that Kai Havertz will finally have 20 or more league goals and double-digit assists. Since his debut in the top division, the most goals a season the German striker has scored is 17 league goals, all of which came for Bayer Leverkusen during the 2018–19 Bundesliga season.
Last year was his second-best goalscoring season, and his best in the Premier League, with 13 league goals. Saying that the striker would suddenly score 20 or more league goals may be controversial, but that may not be true considering his trajectory at the end of last season.
In the PL run-in, he scored 8 goals and 7 assists in 9 league games; if he had been in such form earlier in the season, he could have easily scored more than the 13 league goals he did in his final tally.
This summer, we are unlikely to sign a striker; instead, we may prefer a dynamic winger. With the LHS boosted by a top left back, Riccardo Calafiori, and the expected arrival of Mikel Merino for LCM, there is hope that Gabriel Martinelli will be back in form; if he is, and the left side begins to produce as it should, the Arsenal attack should perform even better than last season.
Given that Havertz isn’t injury-prone and has consistently improved during his tenure at the club, Mikel Arteta trusts him to be his main striker for the upcoming season. I’d be more astonished if he doesn’t surpass 20 goals and 10 assists than if he does.
What do you think?
Sam P
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Completely agree, Sam. Providing he is used as the primary striker and not moved around constantly.
I do think that Havertz is capable of hitting 20 goals in the EPL.
We also need the likes of Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard, Jesus, Trossard to get back to their scoring best. We have enough goals all throughout the team. Can all these players continue to score like we know they can?
We wil see.. 🤞
@goonster, Saka is our most consistently good scorer ever since he has started playing for us.
what is the point of scoring but not winning single trophy
I agree with your prediction.
Let’s just hope it’s another injury-free season for him
Can the season start already please
Trophyless mentality fans like you who are costing us trophy
This was the comment I replied to that got sent to another thread. Unless they are copy pasting.
Such words of wisdom you do enlighten us with.
Obnoxious no content comments like this irritate. Perhaps Izoke believes we should spend £100m on an injury-prone Osimhen or on someone who couldn’t get it done in the Championship but because they found life easy in Portugal means they’re suddenly top-tier.
What exactly is a trophy winning mentality anyway? Should we be like Chelsea and buy everyone and hope something works? People like this don’t have opinions of their own, so seek to degrade others. Pathetic.
He thinks anyone can buy their way to the top, does not matter whether we go broke. City is winning not just because they spent in their earlier days, but also because they made their revenue big too fast (fake sponsors at start, new markets and new fans) – their commercial success is not from their fake sponsors anymore. Also, they have Pep. We cannot spend like ManU/City when our revenue is not top tier yet.
“He thinks anyone can buy their way to the top”
It never ceases to surprise me how many people think that, or put forward arguments with that as an underlying theme.
You hear “Arteta has spent £800m, about time he won a trophy or he’s out”. It’s not right-headed. Just look at Chelsea since Boehly took over to see that you can’t buy success.
Having a good manager who makes the club play well on the field is priceless. Getting rid of them for failing by 2 points to win the PL would be plain nuts. Especially when you think of all the imponderables in a season… the goal Newcastle scored that should have been disallowed. If you changed just that one thing, making that a draw and Arsenal win the league…
And yes, I do realise that things might have panned out differently after that, which is why I said change just that one thing. All too often, titles and trophies are decided by tiny margins, often by refereeing errors and subjective judgements.
Well, making that a draw would still not make up for a 2-point gap. But apart from that, I agree with your whole comment. Chelsea is the burning proof that money doesn’t directly buy you championships. Of course it helps, but there is a lot more to it than just money
This comment is so on point
The Chelsea which recently won the Champions League or is there another we don’t know about?
Do you mean 4 seasons ago?
And what have we won since 4 seasons ago?
The same trophy that we won from 2006 to 2014.
And how is this relevant to Chelsea’s Champions League win and how is it relevant to what I was discussing with Chronicle? Your habit of answering questions or countering points with true data but unrelated and irrelevant to the issue in discussion has gotten old.
The same relevance that you used when using Chelsea’s last CL win under Abramovich, when Neutral mentioned Chelsea under Boehly.
What is the difference? Does Boehly trade in diamonds and gemstones instead of cash? Does Boehly sign extraterrestrial players?
The difference is we’ve won a trophy since they last won one 🙄
Is that so?
Yep.
An Fa cup and a community shield while Chelsea only have the champions league but have been on the downward slope since then.
And I thought the discussion is on Chelsea spending since Boeley’s era till now, hence, the statement made above is valid
What is the difference between the spending between the two owners?
Wow we have won the mighty community shield while Chelsea have “only the champions league?”
I think that is my cue.
@Ben, well said.
Think Havertz will be integral but a lot of things would need to fall in place for me to believe in top scorer status, hes 1st in line behind Saka but i expect saka to improve individually regardless.
His ability to play striker and as preseason showed now play 8 with jesus up top and trossard on the wing and maintain threat is huge.
If he scores 20+ goals but does not have the double digit assists being predicted by the writer, I believe Arsenal as a club may score less goals this season.
Who knows? I have some doubts that he will get to those figures, although like everyone I hope he does. However, I have a lot more doubts that Jesus will which is why I think Arsenal still need to bring in a quality striker if they can.
With time beginning to run out now that’s not as likely as it may have been, but the window has been open since 14 June after all (so long ago, so little done?). We’ll see.
I’m not sure that he’ll score 20. He did well toward the end of last season but he still seems limited in his range of finishes to get to this target. I don’t know what his actual conversion rate of xG’s is but I get a sense it’s quite average and this needs to be better if he’s to achieve 20. All that said, I think he’ll surpass 13 and definately see him contributing with more assists even from the centre forward position.
His XG was 13.47 by understat and 12.3 by Fbref so abiout average conversion rate is a fair point.
I agree I think he’ll score more this season too, playing a full season at Striker will help his totals. Scoring 20 in the league would probably be too difficult.
Still the fact is if the opposition is aware of him it opens up space for the rest of our attackers so it’s a positive.
Arteta’s attacking strategy is unpredictability and goals from everywhere – impossible to defend against
our right hand side triangle of Odegaard, Saka, White has been sensational
but with an under performing left hand side last season his strategy was hampered, both in terms of not enough goals but allowing teams to double team the right
i think Arteta has a plan for Havertz to be a big part of reinvigorating of our left hand side, forming a similar intuitive triangle of Merino/Trossard/Havertz
secured by Calafiori behind them
in that system, making our left as potent as our right Arsenal become impossible to defend against, those 6 (two triangles of three) plus Rice through the middle, makes 7 open play goal scoring options, impossible to man mark and pure chaos for defenders, the antidote to the low block
in that system, Havertz job is to deliver 20+ goal involvements (goals + assists), I see that as entirely doable
I agree with this comment in the main. However, if he gets/stays fit, I believe it will be Jurrien Timber on the left of the defence. I suspect that Mikel has it in mind to replace Gabriel with Calafiori similar to how Ramsdale was replaced by Raya. I think Gabriel is currently the only first choice player that isn’t super confident with the ball and so doesn’t quite fit the Arsenal style. Calafiori will become Arsenal’s equivalent of John Stones.
Fair comments, and the style of play determines as well.
If we play like last year; slower play & buildup, disciplined passing and organizing around their box, trying to orchestrate goals, I don’t see Havertz getting 20 goals.
However, if we play like 2022-2023, quick play and passing, speedy direct attacks, Havertz has a better chance of those 20 goals.
With his best years ahead of him, surely the German international is capable of twenty goal and more in the upcoming campaign.
One trait that gives him the edge is his possessioning and ball awareness , he rarely got injured for a physical player, and now that he’s fully climatize in the gaffer system it would be foolish to against the German achieving this feat.
He won’t
Very vague statement. Do you mean 20 plus goals from open play? Or 20 plus goals including the penalties?
If former, I doubt Havertz can get 20 plus goals all from open play, he might but very unlikely.
But including penalties, he sure can.
Last season, Haaland scored 27 goals, out of which 7 or 8 were penalties I think? I don’t think he scored 20 goals from without penalties.
Very important to address when you talk about “20 goals a season” strikers. Usually, they take penalties for the team, and will score 8 to 10 just from penalties in season. So they only have to score from open play 12 times to be the coveted “20 goals a season striker”.
Surely it would have to be open play as Saka is our usual penalty taker?
So I just checked https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/arsenal-fc/elfmeterschuetzen/verein/11/plus/0?saison_id=2023
and of the 10 penalties we had last season (Premiership games only) Saka took 6, Odegaard 2, Havertz 1 and Viera 1.
That is my worry, I don’t think there are any strikers that are guaranteed to get 20 non penalty goals other than Haaland.
I would love it if Havertz got 20+ goals this season! And who knows, if we don’t get a striker this window, he may well just do it. He was bought to be a midfielder and only really played No.9 for the second half of the season, so a full season at No.9, who knows?! But again, that depends on whether or not we get a new striker.
All in all, I don’t really care who scores, as long as The Arsenal are winning games!
Twenty goals if he plays in dud league cup games, takes penalties etc, but I still believe the money Harvetz cost us should have been better spent. I’ve never understood the deep love go to “Kai” often expressed on this site. I hope it’s not simply blind faith in the belief that Arteta and Edu can do no wrong.
Tell me a striker other than Haaland, who scores 20 plus goals without taking penalties consistently in a good league. I want to hear your options that we can sign.
You don’t spend £65m on a striker and pay £350k on weekly wages and don’t expect him to hit double figures.
Which 65m striker is scoring double digits consistently without taking any penalties?
Watkins scored 19 goals, 3 of which were penalties, Solanke scored 19 goals, 1 of which was a penalty, Palmer scored 22 goals, 9 of which were penalties. If you compare that with Havertz’s 13 goals, 1 of which was a penalty, Havertz scored just 1 less than Palmer in terms of non-penalty goals, but everyone’s rating Palmer and dissing Havertz.
Even Haaland scored 27 goals in total, out of which 7 were penalties, so he just touched 20s. I know he was injured last season, but then again, my point holds true. There aren’t any guaranteed 20 non penalty goal striker out there. But with penalties, havertz can easily reach the 20-goal mark. But our penalty taker is Saka, so that probably won’t happen.
Of course this includes penalty goals too. We won’t pay that amount for a striker who doesn’t have a good penalty conversion ratio. So far he can reach double figures including penalty goals playing regularly without being injured this season then it will be a great season for him.
A very bold prediction by the author but hope it turns out to be true. If Havertz plays upfront, which should be the case once Merino arrives, Jesus could rotate with saka and Havertz, giving Saka some well needed rest and rotation.
Havertz 20+ goals this season. If he achieves this, we will win the premiership. Hopefully, it works out!
You are not gonna publish my comment but i just want to say the admin and the writers of this site are extremely delusional, when the next season comes underway the reality is gonna hit you hard.
Haha.
Are you saying ALL the writers and ALL the admin? Unlike you we have a variety of opinions on JA….
Havertz is not the one I’m worried about I expect Havertz to have a good season so long as Arteta doesn’t move him back into midfield The forward I am concerned about is Martinelli and it could even undo our season also Jesus worries me their output was not good enough for such small margins in a title chase
I wish I shared your confidence that Havertz will score 20+ goals. I’m sure he’ll score 10+, but he’s too hesitant in the box to take the many quick chances that come his way. His goals will come from headers, set pieces, and runs on goal, but he’s no ‘fox in the box’.
After his performance against Wolves, I may have to re- consider my prediction of only 10+ goals. He looked good, and even his wide, wide miss was at least a good attempt.
Keep it up Kai!!!
I agree with the writer, that should be an achievable number for him, alongwith one or two of our wide players.