Is Kai Havertz becoming Arsenal’s most important player?

Kai Havertz started life in North London slowly, but under Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta’s tutelage, he’s evolved into a master of space and time, with a new landmark potentially equalled on the horizon.

The 25-year-old forward has netted six goals in his last six Premier League home games, scoring in each of his last four at the Emirates. The last player to score in five straight home league games for the Gunners was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in September 2019.

It’s something not many imagined following his eyebrow-raising move from Chelsea last summer. He would subsequently feature in all of Arsenal’s opening 12 league matches of the 2023/24 campaign, recording one goal. He would add three more goals across the Gunners’ next five outings before enduring a seven-game scoreless run (while missing their 2–0 loss against West Ham through suspension).

What soon followed is nothing short of impressive and it has bled into this current season. Havertz would play 17 straight Premier League matches, scoring in ten (11 goals), including four on the bounce to start. He’s scored and assisted in five different fixtures, the most by an Arsenal player in a single calendar year since Robin van Persie in 2011 (six times). Furthermore, only Cole Palmer (31), Erling Haaland (24), and Ollie Watkins (21) have been directly involved in more Premier League goals in 2024 than Havertz (19).

However, it’s not his end product that has impressed Arteta, with the Spanish tactician lauding Havertz’s ability to link up Arsenal’s game predominantly as their ‘false nine’. “He’s been unbelievable,” he began. “His football brain, the way he understands space, his timing, the way he brings people together, he just gels the team His work ethic is incredible and every time he’s around the box he’s a real threat. He’s one of our main players at the moment.”

If anything, Havertz’s experience playing in multiple positions has allowed him to evolve into his current form. We’ve seen in 2024/25 so far him displaying all the facets of his game likely picked up from having this background before finally settling into the striker role. Most of his touches have come in the opposition penalty area, though his map shows him dropping deep to help start attacks, drifting wide. “He plays that hybrid role where he is in midfield and then he is arriving [in the box],” Havertz’s former Chelsea manager Frank Lampard noted.

Indeed, of those classified as a “striker,” only Haaland (49) has registered more touches in the opposition’s box than Havertz (35), while only Brentford marksman Bryan Mbeumo (66) — who plays as part of a two-man attack — has posted more successful passes ending in the final third (42).

His attacking statistics are now some of the best among forwards in the Premier League, with only Haaland (0.91) boasting a better non-penalty expected goals per 90 ratio (0.6 — minimum 450 minutes played). “His quality is to know where to be at the right time,” former Netherlands midfielder Clarence Seedorf said on Amazon Prime. “That comes from even the big number nines I played with.”

Regarding our Squawka CF Score across ‘Big Six’ centre-forwards since the start of last season (which focuses mainly on goalscoring), Havertz (74%) is again only behind Haaland (85%) with Nicolas Jackson (73%), Dominic Solanke (71%), Diogo Jota (66%) and Rasmus Højlund (51%) completing the list.

In his last Premier League outing, Havertz’s late goal was his 50th goal involvement in the Premier League (35 goals, 15 assists). Twenty-four of these have come in 43 games for Arsenal, compared to 26 in 91 games for Chelsea. In fact, since joining the Gunners, the German has started 18 Premier League matches for Arsenal as a central striker, registering 19 goals and assists combined in those appearances. Out of those games, Havertz has at least one goal or one assist in all but six.

“He is so powerful, but as well he is so intelligent the way he occupies the spaces, the way he glides everything together,” Arteta added. “His work ethic and now he is around the box and you have the feeling that he is going to score a goal.”