Mikel Arteta has a ‘superb’ Arsenal striker option if he puts stubbornness aside

Kai Havertz is still not the long-term striker solution but persisting with the No. 8 experiment while Eddie Nketiah toils seems silly.

“He was superb. The way he pressed and how intelligent he is to try and understand certain spaces and the timing of it, he was great and got in great positions to score,” said Mikel Arteta.

‘Good debut, should have scored with the right footed chance, overall a good start though,’ wrote renowned Arsenal fan website Arseblog as they awarded the German 7.5/10 in their ratings.

‘Arsenal will have seen Kai Havertz execute the role of non-scoring eternal centre-forward nuisance perfectly,’ we said.

And that’s about as good as it’s got for Kai Havertz at Arsenal, eliciting a ‘superb’ from his manager, caveated but sincere plaudits from Arsenal fans and begrudging, back-handed praise from some perennial arseholes.

That was the first and last time Havertz played as a striker for Arsenal, with Arteta archly shuffling his pack the very next week as the Premier League began, with Gabriel somehow the fall guy to make room for Eddie Nketiah, with Thomas Partey shoehorned into the side at right-back and Havertz moved into the 8 position apparently ring-fenced for the German.

This was always Arteta’s grand plan, as pointed out many, many times in June when I wrote a pretty damning piece on his recruitment. The refrain from Arsenal fans was that Arteta was not spending what seemed (and still does seem) ludicrous money on a back-up forward but on a No. 8; he was not an understudy for Gabriel Jesus but a replacement for Granit Xhaka.

Three months into the project, Havertz has scored one pity penalty in the Premier League and claimed one assist for his simple lay-off into the path of Gabriel Martinelli for Arsenal’s winner against Manchester City. The rest has been forgettable, lost in the noise of laughter from rival fans. A questionable transfer has so far produced very few answers.

There were signs of life – and certainly no shortage of effort – at Newcastle on Saturday but he still created no chances in the absence of Martin Odegaard and could have easily seen red.

Arteta has already tried moving him out of the firing line and onto the bench this season, but the one thing he has not tried is moving him into the firing line where – in his own words from August – he was “superb”. He picked him over the limited Nketiah that day at Wembley and surely that is worth another attempt as Arsenal are staring down the barrel of a third straight defeat for the first time since April 2022. Just four shots on target across two games should surely elicit change.

‘Arsenal need a finisher. Even Manchester City realised after years of falsifications and inversions that there is no greater asset in football than somebody who relentlessly and ruthlessly scores goals,’ I wrote in June and that was without the hindsight of their troubles in front of goal this season. The ‘goals for’ column might read 23, but take away five goals against Championship side Sheffield United and they are in mid-table territory.

Havertz is no more the long-term answer to that issue in November as he was in June but he absolutely is a short-term upgrade on Nketiah, who should not be starting games in the Champions League for Arsenal.

If not Havertz then Leandro Trossard but playing the young English striker v Sevilla would make Arteta as stubborn as Ange Postecoglou.