🦁 Premier League Player of the Week: The flop scores again | OneFootball

It was another fascinating weekend in the Premier League, with plenty still to play for at both ends of the table.

And our Player of the Week is…

Kai Havertz (Arsenal)

A few eyebrows were raised when Arsenal splashed out £65m on Kai Havertz last summer.

After scoring the winning goal for Chelsea in the 2021 Champions League final, the German forward’s development had showed signs of stalling last season, with just 10 goal involvements in 47 appearances telling its own underwhelming story.

Was Havertz the type of player Arsenal needed to take them to the next level and help put last season’s disappointment behind them?

That was the sort of question being asked by many fans and pundits last summer, and the early months of this season suggested that the answer was no.

Havertz was a regular starter in the early weeks, but it took him until 30 September and his 10th appearance before he scored his first goal, and that was from the penalty spot in a 4-0 win at Bournemouth.

It took the 24-year-old another 10 games to score his next goal for the club, with that one giving the Gunners a 1-0 win at Brentford on 25 November.

He would go on to score three more goals in his next 13 matches, but as recently as February he was still being labelled a flop by some sections of the media.

However, Arsenal’s form since the turn of the year has largely been excellent, and a big factor behind their run has been the improvement of Havertz.

On Sunday, Mikel Arteta’s side pulled off a 3-2 victory in the north London derby which leaves them top of the league and in with a great shout of the title if Manchester City slip-up in one of their remaining matches.

After assisting Bukayo Saka with a superb pass for the Gunners’ second goal, Havertz got on the scoresheet himself when he leapt up to head home from a corner to score what proved to be the game’s decisive goal.

That was his eighth goal in his last 15 outings for the club, with five assists to his name in that time too.

He may not quite be scoring prolifically yet, but he has been one of the league’s most in-form players in recent months, and the fans’ terrace chant rings a lot more true than it did when they first started singing it.

It isn’t just goals that Havertz has brought to the table either. In the first half of the season he looked cumbersome and a little clumsy with the ball at his feet, and it took a while for him to gel with the players around him.

But now his languid style is more in tune with how Arsenal function, as if they have adapted the speed of their play to suit him, and his hold-up play has become really important. He has also won 85 headers this season, putting him 12th on the list in Europe’s top-five leagues for attackers and midfielders.

Havertz’s season should serve as a reminder that new signings often need time to adapt to a new team, and former wonderkids are prone to ups and downs in their career.

Whether Arsenal go on to win the title or not, they have undoubtedly gone up a level this season, and their £65m summer signing from Chelsea has played a huge part in that.