Mikel Arteta has urged the Arsenal fans to show their support for new signing Kai Havertz, saying that the under-fire German will produce his best once the fans “give him love”.
Havertz has quickly become a divisive figure in north London, with many fans unimpressed by the former Chelsea player’s performance in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Fulham. There were audible groans aimed towards Havertz at certain moments in the match.
Arteta has now launched a passionate defence of his £65 million signing, who will hope to be in the starting line-up again for this weekend’s match against Manchester United.
“I will tell you what I feel about him,” said Arteta of Havertz. “That I love him and I see his qualities every single day in training. His work-rate is excellent, a lot of things that he has brought to the team are so good. At the moment what is missing is to put the ball in the net and to arrive on those [chances], to have a different impact on the game.
“It is difficult to ask more of our supporters and our people, but my feeling is: give him love and we will get the best out of him. I think we have some very beautiful examples in the last years with players that we have given a lot of support, and they have felt that love and they just exploded.
“I will stick to that because not everyone is going to be willing Arsenal to do well. The ones that have their heart and soul in this club want the best for the club. So let’s do it, because there is a lot there for him to give to us.
“His football brain, how he understands when to move, how to move, when to stay, when to run, it is phenomenal. And it is true that he has played with three different people behind him [on the left of defence], and they are the ones who have to make him good. These guys depend on the ones at the back.”
Arteta believes that Havertz will naturally build “chemistry” with his new team-mates, making the point that Granit Xhaka evolved into a much more effective player following the arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko at the club last summer.
“We will see because things will change and you will find chemistry,” said Arteta. “Granit, maybe if he didn’t have Oleks behind him, he would have been different. But something was there and that chemistry builds not only on the pitch but on the outside. That helps the whole fluidity.
“If you put Fabio [Vieira] and [Gabriel] Martinelli together something good is going to happen because they are like brothers. It’s not something that is in the tactics or the formation. They look for each other, understand each other and they love playing with each other. That’s a plus and we have to try to sense that all the time.”
Some Arsenal supporters have questioned the changes in the team’s shape this season, after such a successful campaign last year, but Arteta said he sees football in a different way. He added that each game is a “different story”, similar to his journey to the club’s training ground each day.
“I think we discuss formations in a different way,” said Arteta . “The other day there were 36 different formations in the match. Against Manchester City, 43. For me it’s something very different maybe from the way that you look.
“It is different [this season] and it is going to be different and the energy is going to be different and that’s because it’s a different season. That’s the beauty of it. The beauty of the thing that I enjoy the most which is new. We can still do much, much better a lot of things. Let’s do that.”
