Kai Havertz Saves the Day as Arsenal Triumph Over Ipswich.
In a thrilling Boxing Day fixture, Kai Havertz’s heroics ensured Arsenal’s narrow 1-0 victory against Ipswich. This win came at a crucial time, especially after Manchester City’s title chances dimmed further with a 1-1 draw against Everton and Liverpool’s 3-1 triumph over Leicester.
Newly promoted Ipswich have been fearless this season, taking on Premier League giants head-on. However, they changed their tactics against us, deploying a stubborn low block at the Emirates.
Critics may scoff at our mere 1-0 win, but a win is a win.
The decisive moment came courtesy of a £65 million investment—Kai Havertz. The German international unleashed a brilliant shot into the left side of the net after a sublime lofted pass from Leandro Trossard.
This goal marked Havertz’s 15th in his last 30 Premier League games for Arsenal and his 12th across all competitions this season.
Some might disagree, but for those clamoring for a 20-goal striker, I’m confident Havertz will surpass that mark this season. And even if we bring in someone like Alexander Isak or Benjamin Sesko to bolster our attack, having Havertz netting 20+ goals alongside that new striker’s contribution will only strengthen us.
It’s clear Kai Havertz deserves more respect for his pivotal role in the team. With 21 goals and counting, he’s outscored any other Arsenal player across all competitions in 2024.
He may not score in every game, but he’s been a reliable goal source for Arteta. Without his goal against Ipswich, a draw was the likely outcome. Ipswich were content with a 0-0 draw, so we were fortunate to clinch that 1-0 win.
Securing those three points keeps us strategically positioned in the title race as we aim to outpace Liverpool.
Peter Rix
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Kai will continue to divide opinions unless he goes through a similar performance arc to that of RvP. I once thought he would do this but have revised my view as I think he lacks the selfish, single-minded approach that RvP had. But that is also a good thing for the team because he works tirelessly up front and is a vital link between midfield and attack, as well as providing a long option for Raya for hit. He’s a good player and a hard worker for the team and if he can find a way to add goals without sacrificing his good work what a player he’ll be then.
The thing about RVP is that he always scored plenty of goals – the only difference in his final season or so is that he avoided injury. RVP was more selfish, but he did contribute a lot in build up – very skillful player, he was on a completely different level to havertz, frankly. I’m not against havertz, though – I think he’s done well but he very much looks like a jack of all trades, master of none to me. Useful player but we can certainly get a better CF than him.
Haha he’s our only striker (not even one )he’s got a grand sum of 7 prem goals this season probably playing 90plus minutes in every game .
Hes a good solid player but nothing more
I remember a few on here calling for pep lite to sign Isak when he came available it didn’t happen then we sign Havertz for 5 million more to play him as a forward .
What’s Havertz worth now and what is Isak worth now ?
The thing is with Havertz is Arteta as to fit him into the squad when there is no need to .
Your last sentence has hit the bullseye. Isaac at 120K per week and Kai at 331K per week, the difference is chalk and cheese. 12 goals in 17 games vs 7 goals in 17 matches! We could pay 2 more world class strikers and have 3 quality players for the the wages of one. Not the lad’s fault, the attitude of the coach is in question. When fans ask genuine questions, the AKBs consider this abuse. While abuse is never tolerated, genuine questions should be in my humble opinion.
Are you the one paying Havertz 331k ? Get your fact right buddy,…
Maybe, could be, should be. I’m not the CFO to determine the proceeds from the ticket revenue going to which debit head.
Could other players produce more than Havertz, given the same gametime and minutes?
I think there are others who would score more goals, but less of “sharing” and playmaking that Havertz contributes.
Arteta is a system coach; players play the system not the individual flair of players.
Is it a better way? Time will tell. We are competitive, but have not won a single trophy with his handpicked squad.
If competitive is good enough, then some fans are satisfied. If trophies are the end goal, we have yet to see if Arteta can lead the team to trophies.
MA forcing Kai into systems is the reason Kai is dividing opinions.
Signed as a midfielder but it didn’t work and then he clicked as a CF and MA is playing him in midfield again when we have abundance in midfield
We solidly over paid for him and it is not his fault.
He was never worth the amount of unt we splashed out and should not be judged on the transfer fee.
He is a solid squad player but should not be starting every game.
If something is for sale, ie, a house, and you really want it, then you pay the asking price. That’s what happens with footballers.
High scoring striker with 6 goals 😂, we want to win the title and no forward in our team has even 8 goals!
Havertz is a good player but his salary of around £300k pw warrants a better return. I’m still convinced MA doesn’t fancy an out and striker.
Try £235k pw.
SueP called Havertz a “waste of space” during the Ipswich game! I was shocked, especially coming after the man just scored what turned out to be the winning goal
We conveniently forget that Havertz was brought in as a replacement for Xhaka not as a striker. In fact Arteta and Edu initially wanted Mason Mount but chose to go to United (thank God)
I was one of those who wanted Arteta’s neck for spending so much money on the player. But I think he has since proven his worth as best he can.
Truth is that we don’t play to Havertz’s strengths. The man thrives on balls floated into the area for his aerial prowess. But most times our team insist on playing the middle. This style better suits a striker who makes the runs. If we have more direct balls into the area from the likes of Trossard, Martinelli and Odegaard, we’d expect more goals from Havertz I think
Corporate man
I suggest you look back at my reply – or should have looked back at my reply because my comment was pure irony.
Why’s it that each time Havertz shows some semblance of life; scoring one goal in 3 or 4 outings, he’s hailed as a top striker. The guy doesn’t rank in the top 10 best strikers in the league and cost arsenal 65 million.
He isn’t a striker.
Just out of interest can we have the ten names ? I can get to 5 ?
Well he is 12th at the moment, lagging way behind.
How many are centre forwards though? We could name 15 forwards if we include players salah and palmer. From the cfs above him I would take Isak, Halaand, Cunha and take a pass on Jackson and Wood. From all cfs you would include Duran/Watkins in the list and maybe Pedro but he’s not exactly setting the world alight. Havertz is better than Nunez, Hojlund, Zirkzee, Fulrick and Solanke?
Wow, they are world beaters.🤣
That’s the point how many world beater strikers are there? Even gykores isn’t hitting the same heights under the new regime in a poor Portuguese league. The lad from Porto also looks a better fit than Victor. I would say Isak is the only world beating cf available to us and he would cost 145 according to some journalist.
Well I suppose the ones named all need to be included because like Haverz, they are not all strikers, per se. But they are scoring more goals than our “striker” who isn’t a striker.
Good player for us, a team player but I am sure to win trophies we do need a selfish striker with broad shoulders to handle the weight of being the main striker (like Isak) It is clear he nor Jesus have this quality. Gabrielle Martinelli is selfish enough but without the strength nor ability to be a main striker hence he remains a wide attacker.
Halland
Issac
Jota
Watkins
Duran
Wood
Jackson
Cuana
Solankie
Evanilson
Mateta
All better not players but natural strikers
Not having Solanke he’s played upfront all season for spurs and he’s less goals than Havertz. Same with Jackson. Mateta is just in a hot streak and a evanilson maybe in the future.
tell me Dan who on this you want for Arsenal #9?
Wirtz as a false nine 😂😂
Not many but that doesn’t make it okay for us to have a worse striker
I was simply responding to the question name a better striker
Again to stress nor player
I like Havertz and he does allot of good things but he’s not a natural finisher who will get 20 league goals
a fair and balanced response
for me only Isak raising the ceiling of this Arsenal squad
the others no where near
even Haaland not a good fit, not good at pressing, defending and creativity for others, and in recent run has not scored ‘goals from nothing’ to rescue his team
£150m Isak clearly not happening in January
personally, i think Arsenal would benefit more from a higher performing left wing, currently weak left drags down the rest of our forward line, our strikers would benefit too
He is Arsenal’s best striker though
How is that a praise? We are not competing against ourselves.
The headline clearly says OUR highscoring, etc
If he’s our best striker, were in big trouble.
All this says is that Arsenal seriously lack talent at the position.
Who has hailed him as a top striker ?
Many
Some in summer said he would score more then Halland !
Havertz is a brilliant player ad looks like a wonderful person for sure. That said, the club overpaid for his services, and he’s overpaid for his performance. I agree, he’s a victim of what could be management blunder at the club sadly.
We need a new Centre Forward that is painfully obvious but we need Havertz its Jesus who is the weak link just because he scored for the first time in almost a year against Palace changes nothing in fact it highlights how bad his scoring record is.
Because that’s simply the point, he’s not a 20 league goals a season material
That’s not his fault
Hes good at other things but simply is not a title winning number one striker
Because look at our attack and there is no player that is even guaranteed to hit double digits this season besides Kai, so there is added pressure for him to perform every game. The recruitment for our attacking players have been neglected since Mikel walked through the door. He’s done a great job not making us pushovers defensively but he has forgotten that no games can be won if you dont score, and that definitely no league title can be won without a 20+ goal scorer.
Not to mention through no fault of his own, the fee pad for Kai was far too high. And I believe he’s the highest paid player at the club, so that adds on the expectations.
Here’s the fact, Arsenal is second on the goals scored log this season, we’ve never had issues with goals……. And Kai is on course to hit 20+ goals this season which I believe is a good return for an attacker….. So what’s the complaint?
Never had issue with goals ?
Everton
Newcastle
Bournemouth
Atlanta
Milan
Last season
Villa twice
West Ham
City
Newcastle
Porto
Bayern
That’s naive Dan, you mentioned 5 teams out of 28 teams we’ve played this season. Considering our position in all comps that’s good unless you naively think we should win all these games with multiple goals. Am looking at the bigger picture here.
No but your words we never have issues with goals so that’s not true , eg Everton we didn’t drop points because of our defense did we ?
Go back to when Mr Wenger used to win title and your find rarely did we do a season where we didn’t score in most games
Maybe 2 league games a season we would fail to score
We used to be a team who would guarantee we would make chances
Always the same small-ish group of people with the negative illogical comments. Some of them write endless negative articles on the same subjects until we’re bored stiff with it.
They call themselves fans. With fans like them, who needs enemies?
They maoned when Arsenal only beat Ipswich 1-0. People told them to be grateful for the win and for being second in the table.
Then, as if fate decided to reinforce the point… today, in Ipswich’s next match, they beat Chelsea 2-0.
I have to take a break from this site from time to time because it just gets too wearing. I read the comments from 3 negative articles today before this and resisted getting into the discussion.
Life is too short for this kind of discussion ad nauseam.
Admin Pat, would you please consider rejecting negative articles in future? Especially articles on a subject that’s been covered before.
Under Mikel, we’ve hit the most goals scored in a season in the club history…..
But winning 6-0 at West Ham and Sheffield United and 5-0 at Burnley last season means nothing if your then not scoring against Villa home and away , West Ham at home , Newcastle away , etc
True, congratulations to Mikel for that stat, but the only stat of importance is that we have wone 1 FA and 2 Shields with Mikel after an expenditure of of 750M++ spread over 5 years. In that span CFC won the UCL, EL, Club world cup, UFEA super cup,
Just Saying!
The Shoba Reality Show,
When we talk of the trophy’s won under Arteta, is there any chance we can refrain from counting the two Community shields from this.
Every time I hear or read comments regarding the Community Shields, I cringe.🤦♂️
Since when did the Community Shields become so important anyway.
Is it just to bolster the true answer of it being just one genuine trophy won under Arteta.
The Community Shield, (come on, Really!). 🤷♂️🤦♂️👎
Even when we went unbeaten we had 12 draws ?
That’s the point
We have not achieved anything like that since , fans just act like it because they want to believe that
Arsenal 0 – 0 Everton – and it was at home! 1 goal against Ipswich? Newcastle, City, West Ham, and Brentford all put 4 past them. Many teams have completely negated our offense because we just don’t have that one guy that scares defenses. Havertz doesn’t intimidate anyone, and at 235/week, he is not worth the money.
Goals win matches, matches win points, points win titles. Unless one is not a fan or just a neutral spectator, then dropping points will not make a difference. In 19 games, the return is 7 goals, i like the optimism of 20 goals a season when the player himself cannot manage 15 (his highest was 17 in 2018-19 season for Leverkusen). For me Gabriel J, Havertz are not good enough for a serious team challenging for silverware, both need to make way for someone better.
He had 12 goals already this season, so he’ll likely hit 20 or more before the season ends……
It’s 20 goals in the league you need though
We have a lot of fans that moan, yet don’t actually watch Arsenal games.
Because if they had been watching, they’d notice that Kai has been feeding off scraps all season. We could have the best striker in the world, and it would make no difference because there is a lack of service.
If he was missing chance after chance, the criticism is fair enough, but this simply isn’t the case. He’s barely getting half chances!
When we bring in some proper competition
fans will appreciate having a durable Havertz in the squad
I think why Havertz divides opinions is because of Arteta stubbornness to shoe him into the starting 11 without trying other available options. A time on the bench could prove his worth to us doubters. For me the player has talent without consistent ability. He works hard running around and disrupting play but little else. What is his best position? Who knows
The Harverts conversation died down for a while till MA decided to put him in midfield again cause GJ scored against palace. Kai in midfield just peeled the old wound
Liverpool showing yet again (2019/20) that it is not about a prolific clinical striker (Nunez definitely not one) but a high performing front three combinations that compliment each other
sadly for Arsenal our left hand side continues to let us down
I assume every single JA contributor would prefer Havertz over Nunez (who cost considerably more btw)
Agree Arsenal1886. Every club needs individuals who can put the ball in the net but many fans get starstruck by big names and don’t realize that team play and strategy is much more important when it comes to winning games and having a successful season.
But our strategy isn’t successful
Whatever Dan, I no longer want to waste time with your “comments”.
That’s because you want to say things that are not true and not be challenged
Factually this strategy has yet to be successful
Oh yes, things that are not true. Typical response. Whatever Dan.
Well yeah , it’s not true to say this strategy is successful when we are 9 points off top of table ?
I was told by some Gooners that Havertz would score more league goals this season then Halland and Nketiah was a better option then Mbappe
What then happens is it’s turned that the likes of me are negative
No, it’s simply a case of your cant make things up
Our own manager says we shouldn’t accept 2nd as success that we deserve more so I’ll ask how is this strategy successful so far ?
Did I ever state the strategy was successful or unsuccessful whatever those terms mean to you? Again, typical response. Didn’t bother to read the rest of your comment. Go away.
So why argue with my suggestion it’s not successful?
No argument made with whatever the heck you’re on about. Again, go away.
Okay lol
The team is solid, it will create chances. Anyone can tap in the ball… Or not, so let’s see, as Robert R said, what is Havertz worth if he won’t start every single game.
My opinion is that Arsenal need a proper striker. Simple mathematics: 2 extra goals scored in 2 games can be the difference between 2 and 6 points taken in those games. Or to be second place or Champions. It sounds simplistic but…
Arteta is a stubborn guy. I still don’t forget for how long he kept Nketiah. We could have had a top striker long time ago. And be champions instead of second.
Yeah one of the worse strikers to play for us in Prem
Are you old enough to remember Chamakh? I think the fact that Eddie is now riding the bench at Palace is proof enough he should’ve been sold far sooner than he was. I consider him to be a decent Championship level striker and it’s slightly worrying Arteta didn’t see that.
Yeah Chamakh was better and that’s saying something lol
I’m going back even further, doe’s anyone remember Lee Chapman.
Excellent at Leeds United, couldn’t hit a barn door for Arsenal. 🤦♂️🙄
Not Prem though
And certainly not paid 100-000 pound a week to sit on the bench
A terrible player for AFC
Chamakh started well tbf and declined after he got unfairly dropped for RVP.
The truth is Kai does a lot for the team besides score and that is why he is in the side and unlikely to be replaced. Vlahovic and the like will almost certainly score more goals but would that be at the expense of something else? I think getting a top quality LW is actually more important to the side at the moment but both would be better. Actually getting neither is more likely though.
7 premier league goals against: Wolves, Leicester, Southampton, Ipswich, West Ham, Crystal Palace, and Brighton. Only two of those goals actually mattered. We could’ve done without 5 of those goals and still had the same result. And what happens when we actually play decent teams? He disappears. Havertz isn’t, and never will be, a top notch striker. This article is a joke, and you should be embarrassed.