Arrives from Chelsea - Why Arsenal are signing Kai Havertz for €75m

Arsenal have signed Chelsea forward Kai Havertz. According to multiple reports, Arsenal have paid an initial €70 million plus an additional €5m in add-ons to sign the German national team player. Havertz has signed a contract until 2025 with the North London club. The fee paid isn’t far off the €80m the Stamford Bridge club paid for the young attacking midfielder back in 2020. “Kai is a player of top quality," Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said in a club statement. "He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield and variety to our play."

Havertz makes the move to Arsenal as not only the club’s second most expensive signing ever, following just short of the €80m the club paid Lille for Nicolas Pépé in 2019. Like his French counterpart, Havertz makes the move to Arsenal with some serious question marks as to whether he’ll be able to live up to a sizable fee, following three difficult years at Chelsea. But there are also plenty of reasons why Arteta and his backroom staff have decided to push the boat out for the forward. 

Why are Arsenal signing Kai Havertz? 

Perhaps the most obvious reason why Arsenal are making a sizable bet on Havertz is simply due to the fact that he’s still relatively young at 24 years of age and has shown in key moments during his time at Chelsea that he’s certainly capable of thriving in the Premier League. But when we dig deeper into the player’s stats we can see that there’s also a talented forward just waiting to be unleashed in a good team. 

For example, when we look at Havertz’s league goals and assists per 90 minutes over the course of his career, we not only see that he did relatively well in his first two seasons at Chelsea but that he’s also proven to be a notably consistent creator or scorer of goals. Indeed, as we can see in the graphic above, Havertz’s return of 0.60 goals and assists per 90 in the Premier League last season was only slightly less than his return in the Bundesliga the very season Chelsea decided to buy him. And while his record in the 2022/23 season was dreadful, it’s clear to see that there hasn’t been any real drop off since he made the move to England. 

Another reason why Arteta may be keen on signing Havertz is simply to do with how useful he would be as a squad player. Whether the Germany international could elbow his way into a starting role ahead of the likes of Gabriel Martinelli or Gabriel Jesus remains to be seen, but over the course of his career he has shown to be perfectly comfortable playing as a striker, as a No.10 or even in central midfield or out wide. Which effectively means Arsenal would be signing a player that can cover just about every position in their forward line and as such something of a bargain for just €75m. 

It remains to be seen whether Havertz will push on under Arteta’s tutelage and in a more settled team like Arsenal’s, but it’s also the case that his lack of goals or indeed form at Chelsea has been wildly overblown. The Germany international may not have been capable of single-handedly saving his former club from tumbling down the league table this season, but he may prove to be exceptionally useful in Arsenal’s quest to challenge in the Champions League and Premier League next season.