A £62m transfer fee. £330k in weekly wages. 178 minutes. No goals. No assists. While it may be too early to label Havertz a flop, pertinent questions are bubbling up. Just what did Arteta see in this fully-formed 24 year old who has obviously peaked already and who benefitted tremendously from the completely stable and nourishing environs he encountered upon his arrival at Stamford Bridge? It’s clearly not an AFTV-level overreaction to label Havertz The Worst Signing EverTM. Chelsea fleeced us. Again.
Okay, so I have to admit that this was all a bit of a wind-up. Think of me as a carnival barker or a newsie tossing off sensationalised, hyperbolic headlines to draw you in. I hope to appease you with something resembling actual insight now that you’re here. Assuming that you’ve read this far, let’s treat the headline and lede as water under a bridge and get down to brass tacks: Havertz has actually been quite good. Worth what we paid and will be paying? That’s another question.
Against City in the Community Shield, he went on as a #9/CF and didn’t really impress. He was well-nigh anonymous, taking just two shots (both on target, it’s worth noting) and being credited with just three touches, according to whoscored. Whether that reflects a lack of quality on his part of a lack of possession on the squad’s depends on your own peccadilloes, preferences, and prior notions. Against Forest on Saturday, he was somewhat more influential (which is to be expected given the gap from Forest to City). Thrust into the somewhat-unfamiliar #9/CF role, Havertz was nonetheless influential even if a bit tentative. Presented with numerous chances at having a go, he opted instead for the safer option—probably the result of dealing with pressures after his move to Chelsea and then this one to Arsenal. Playing it safe makes sense—but scoring a goal will offer immeasurable succour. The goals will come, then flow.
This is a lad growing into his role, re-discovering himself, and plumbing the depths of his potential. As it currently stands, yes, he languishes somewhere among the Chamakhs, Bendtners, and Gervhinos of recent history. Time will tell whether he can establish himself among higher echelons. He’s passable as a #9, but he may be better as an #8 from which he could very well earn himself a place as more of an 8-ish, box-to-box midfielder, reminiscent of Ramsey or Rosický in their pomp. He’s bigger and capable of better hold-up play and physicality than either of them or Xhaka or Partey.
One easy-to-overlook element that he brings is that physicality in defending corners. According to Opta Analyst, “Havertz was the best attacking player in the Premier League in 2022-23 [when it came to defending an opponent’s corner]. His 23 first contacts at defensive corners was the fourth most in the whole top flight in 2022-23, behind only Brentford centre-back Ethan Pinnock (34), Aston Villa centre-back Tyrone Mings (26) and goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez (24), and made up 12.6% of Chelsea’s total.” There will be those who insist that we should see Havertz scoring goals on an almost Haalandian level, given that we spent more to sign him (it must be added, though, that Haaland’s weekly wages are reportedly three times more than Havertz’s).
Long story short, it’s clearly too early to arrive at any kind of meaningful verdict here. This may come as cold comfort, but even if Havertz doesn’t ever fulfill his potential, he’ll always have Nicolas Pépé to claim the dubious prize of having been our worst-signing ever. If Arteta can bring out the best in Havertz, as he’s done with Saka, Martinelli, Saliba, Magalhães, Ødegaard, and White, among others, we’ll have a steal on our hands, and it’ll be Chelsea who’ll be feeling fleeced by Arsenal.
What a moronic article. Has played one competitive game. Ridiculous to write him off.
You may not have read the entire article, or, if you did, you didn’t read very closely. The second paragraph admits that the first is a wind-up.
Too early to tell, as we all know.
I am not sure, as two of you appear to claim, that Jon is writing him off. Unfortunately, Jon seems not to have learned from previous responses to his writings, that irony and wry humor may often be lost on some readers. I wonder how Jonathan Swift survived in England, let alone Sam Clemens, and others in the US or Kingsley Amis and the Goon Show…hmmm
Meantime, while we are considering whether Chelsea is fleecing folks, should we consider whether time may prove that they are being fleeced as they seem to be spending as if they have a printing press in the owner’s basement or under the stadium? If I could get someone to pay me 115 million for something or someone that cost me about 4.5 million I would be accused of having perpetrated fraud or a scam, but then being a billionaire is not a guarantee of being a genius as we can see everywhere these days.
I don’t get it; was at the ground Saturday and I thought he did some cracking stuff – not just me but everyone around us thought the same. He will only get better too.
Matt I watched the game on TV and agree with you. Havertz looked good off the ball, was pressing really hard and with corners and set pieces he was attracting a lot of attention from defenders helping free up other players. NF played really deep and had 2 rows of five in defense.
The real problem with the game was how we let up in the second half. Lots of possession isn’t much good unless it is used effectively and/or ruthlessly.
well-said, Reg – it’s always a pleasure when people actually read carefully and add other insights as well.
Thought Havertz had a good game myself. 80% possession first-half, means everyone was clicking. One of the aspects that never seems to be mentioned is his ability to press with the best of them, an integral skill in Arteta’s ‘defend from the front’ tactics. Maybe not so necessary Saturday, but he was really quite good pressing against City in the Community Shield tilt.
No one would be happier to see him score or assist than me– as he did in preseason. It will come.
I think he’ll end up proving most of his critics wrong, although there will always be nay-sayers more interested in pushing a preconceived notion than in considering new evidence as it arrives. For as well as he’s looked, he’s also looked somewhat tentative, passing up opportunities to shoot and looking to pass instead. As he gets settled and the confidence grows, I suspect we’ll seem him grow into his game and start finding the back of the net. Until then, of course, it’s worth remembering that scoring goals is just one of numerous ways to make positive contributions, and he’s done well in other areas.
Jon-I get the whole sardonic wit schtick, unfortunately more often than not your first words ring true more than your last…as of right now, a front two of Havertz and Eddie is a mid-level duo at best…of course, things could change in the coming weeks, but I very much doubt they will ever reach the level required to secure us any silverware at home or abroad…thankfully a rather fortuitous bounce and a somewhat anomalous Saka strike from distance saved our proverbial ass…let’s hope that Timber and Jesus will be back on the pitch sooner rather than later and that our galaxy brain manager will get over himself when it comes to his positional selections
more often than
I’m starting to look forward to the seconds-later edit, AST. As for Timber, there’s now talk of potential ACL damage. Even if not as serious as the one that looks to have knocked Mings out for the rest of the season, it looks like he’ll be out for a while, but I doubt we’ll see White at CB and Partey at RB again. I hope not.
Back to the original point, I think Nketiah has pretty much shown us his level; he’s at or close to maximising his potential. Havertz has a higher ceiling, I believe, and given a chance to play that #8 role, will find his footing and maybe start showing us the kind of player he’s meant to be. I have faith (as I’m sure you anticipated) that he’ll rise to the occasion sooner rather than later.
Timber should have never seen the pitch following the break, as it was clear that something was amiss when he first went to ground…I would suspect that him being shoehorned into a totally unfamiliar side had something to do with what ultimately transpired…that said, allowing him to continue was the only blameworthy managerial act in this particular equation
on a side note, I was thinking about our club, as it presently stands, when I was watching the United/Wolves affair this afternoon…United got away with one, as the Wolves, who many suggested were a team in utter disarray, were an absolute delight to watch, unlike the discombobulated home side…unfortunately the ability to score still alludes this rather slick moving side…as it pertains to us, let’s hope that we don’t find ourselves following a similar path, as we have a glaring lack of clinical finishers, even though we spent a crapload thus far this window…of course, I don’t mind not having a 30 goal man on hand, if we can get the same sort of collective production we had last season, but I do think that will be a tough ask unless MA can open up his tactical playbook, especially considering that there’s a defensive blueprint for his preferred inclinations
I don’t know about your first point. I explore Timber’s injury in the post that gets published tomorrow. What’s likely is that he suffered a partial tear or rupture but one that didn’t feel all that bad in the moment, and then the tear/rupture was complete for innocuous reasons in the second half. Let’s hope it’s something less-serious than an ACL rupture. We’ve had quite a few of those already, thank you.
As for the Man U-Wolves match, Wolves really should have taken all three but for some poor finishing and even-worse officiating. How Hooper didn’t award Wolves a penalty for Onana’s headless-chicken of a “challenge” is beyond me, even given the “it’s Man U at home needing a bit of help” conspiratorial folderol.
As to the last point, I’m quite content to see us forego a Golden Boot contender if we can get the goal-contributions we saw from Martinelli, Saka, and Odegaard last season. Jesus, despite missing a third of the season, still found time add 11 goals and seven assists. I suspect that Havertz or Rice will join this communal approach with one (or both) adding 10+ goal contributions.
I’m preparing a post on your “preferred inclinations” remark, not in direct response to your remark itself but in response to something Carra and Neville said on MOTM…
in regards to my “first point”, as someone who’s played a shit-tonne of highly competitive sports, I’ve seen guys get injured for all manner of things, including when they were deployed in an unfamiliar capacity, like a WR switching sides, from X to Z, or when a second baseman is shifted to shortstop etc…muscle memory is such an important aspect of one’s body dynamics that’s largely ignored or misunderstood…not to mention all the minuscule muscles that are actively engaged during any repetitive athletic act, which is why you can feel some considerable discomfort after hitting a bucket of balls following a long layoff, so whenever you flip your normal script it can be a cause for concern…of course, this might have nothing whatsoever to with this particular scenario, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it played a role
I suppose it will be one of those things to debate without ever resolving it. On a related note, I managed to re-injure the surgically repaired knee for the first time…by apparently sleeping incorrectly. I fell asleep feeling fine only to make at 3am with pain in the knee similar to how it felt after the rupture. There’s no swelling, though, so I doubt it ruptured again. Perhaps to prove your point, I was deployed to an unfamiliar location, sleeping on a hotel bed.
Pack it in, Jon. Painfully obvious that some do not read past the first paragraph and I get bored reading their drivel in response to your ‘wit’.
I’ve tried to shorten the wind-up and even followed up by admitting it in the second paragraph. Maybe I have to end the charade in the first paragraph to reduce the risk of people skipping the rest of the article. There doesn’t seem to be anyway to hide or disable the “Leave a reply” or “# replies” under the title, which would go a long way to minimising the drivel. In the meantime, I may have to rein it in a bit.
Well, at least half of the readership recognized that Jon is a “sardonic wit” and, as usual, there are those who take him too seriously and respond accordingly. I do agree, however, that the problem is, much as what the overall populace tends to do, is having folks not getting past the headline or the first few sentences, before the point of the posting or news article emerges. We see this every day and the British tabloids tend to be guilty more often than not, especially with headlines that lure you in and, sometimes, never even include any text related to that headline.
It is always fascinating to read how “A simple Truth” finds the dark side every time, although I do tend to agree that Eddie, and maybe, Havertz, are not quite the dynamic duo we might wish. I doubt they are, even Arteta’s first option, but may have been in a match he expected might be easier than some going forward and a chance to try it although isn’t that what pre-season was for? Injuries do not look good especially Timber and the length of time it seems to be taking for Zinchenko to return. BTW, I assume Jesus still has a month or so, but where is Elneny among others? Furthermore, while Chelsea seems to be vacuuming a lot of decent folk, are we still in the hunt for Kudus and anyone else and should we fear that Balogun may end up in the PL (to possibly haunt us) and that Pepe will just be cut loose for free?
Aye, I’m thinking I should tone down the “wit” (and the fact that both you and consolsbob used quotation marks around the word suggest a certain skepticism about just how witty I really am…) or think about other ways to manage the responses.
In other news, the injury to Timber looks like it’ll knock him out for a while, but Tomiyasu is available, and of course White can return to RB now that Magalhaes is fit (not sure why he was rested in the first place). We’ll see if Arteta has any faith in Tierney with Zinchenko out…or will he turn to Tomiyasu on the left as he’s done before?
Maybe do the first graph in italics, or as a blockquote.
Something to visually let the reader know ‘this is different’.
[strokes chin, nods contemplatively…]
Off to Arabia, apparently….
come again?
I suspect the Timber injury, if an ACL, may mean as much as 7 months or even the season. Too bad since he seemed a good buy. It happens to all clubs, but one hopes later into a season after they have contributed and then, hopefully, not a full tear with surgery and rehab. It would seem that, despite not having fully unloaded some of the personnel, Edu and Arteta may now have to consider a replacement for Timber who could start and, as everyone seems to agree, someone who could spell Jesus or even start before him. The well, unfortunately, seems to have dried up and despite being smug about getting their players early, it appears other sides are doing as well, if not better.
BTW, it was fascinating to discover how Chelsea has been able to circumvent FFP, not only by spreading contracts out over as much as eight years, but, this year, avoiding the FIFA rule because their dismal year past left them out of European competition and the need for compliance. Why are we not as clever at bending the rules?