Kai Havertz: No More Mr Nice Kai

[GoonerJeeves]

Spoiler

Pål Lydersen had number 20 as well. Had no business playing for Arsenal.

 

[Macho]

Questioning the Havertz signing is fair. I did that myself when we bought him. But comparing him to Palmer as if he should've been our target is disingenuous. Nobody saw Palmer's breakthrough coming. Among all the bad signing they did Chelsea simply lucked into one that was great.

Comparing players is fair game that doesn't mean anybody wants him at Arsenal. I prefer him to Kai just overall as a player and there is nothing wrong with that.

Palmer has been a known commodity who had hype around since the Euro U21 England win, so whilst him topping the scoring charts (due to farming penalties) is a surprise - his talent is not.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Palmer has more pens this season than Arsenal have had in like 3

 

[Gooner Zig]

Comparing players is fair game that doesn't mean anybody wants him at Arsenal. I prefer him to Kai just overall as a player and there is nothing wrong with that.

Palmer has been a known commodity who had hype around since the Euro U21 England win, so whilst him topping the scoring charts (due to farming penalties) is a surprise - his talent is not.

Palmer is significantly overperforming his xG, I think his production this season is an outlier.

 

[Macho]

Palmer is significantly overperforming his xG, I think his production this season is an outlier.

Could easily be, we've seen it with B.Fernandes how much penalties can fluff up your tally and what they look like without them.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Could easily be, we've seen it with B.Fernandes how much penalties can fluff up your tally and what they look like without them.

Undisputable that he's a great talent but I would like to see more of a sample size.

 

[Heavy Duty Rom]

4 strikers. Thoughts?

 

[A_G]

 

[Heavy Duty Rom]

Tbf, when Xhaka was there, a lot of us said we need someone like him, but with more dynamism is the final third. This is still the case.

 

[Heavy Duty Rom]

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4 strikers. Thoughts?

This is Isak, Havertz, Nunez, Haaland btw. Kai holding his own, no?

 

[OnlyOne]

Yep, lovely to see. Mikel really turned Xhaka into something serious, the way he’s blossomed has been nice.

There’s another player AM don’t really like who has the intelligence and understanding to pick up that LCM role.

 

[SA Gunner]

Yep, lovely to see. Mikel really turned Xhaka into something serious, the way he’s blossomed has been nice.

There’s another player AM don’t really like who has the intelligence and understanding to pick up that LCM role.

Who's that?

 

[OnlyOne]

Who's that?

Zubi

 

[albakos]

Yep, lovely to see. Mikel really turned Xhaka into something serious, the way he’s blossomed has been nice.

I posted my analysis about those same tactical moves a year ago.

Good that Twitter and A-M are finally catching up

When the third goal was scored, it was a nice set of fluid passes and movements into the empty spaces.
So I wanted to highlight the intelligent movements of Granit and Zinny in relation to Granit's goal.

You may check the 2nd half of the game on Arsenal website (apologies for mobile screenshots, as the video player is not the most user-friendly to capture stills )

Highlights: Arsenal score four in Palace win

Check out the bets of the action from our dominant Premier League victory over Crystal Palace

www.arsenal.com

Check the timestamps to see how quickly these fluid moves happen.

The action starts a few seconds earlier with a Zinchenko throw-in toward Xhaka. After a few passes across the other side, they are both near each other as two Palace players are closing in. So it's a 2v2 situation.

But then the intelligent movements of both of them quickly contributed to a 3v3 situation as Zinny was ahead and Xhaka and Partey had Palace players nearby, but Gabriel was now an extra man to choose his next pass.

What happens in the next 10 seconds is a beautiful thing to witness.

As Gabriel is free to pass, Xhaka points toward Zinchenko to move backward so he can occupy the empty space he leaves there.

While Zinchenko and Xhaka are switching places, Gabriel passes to Partey.

Zinchenko arrives at the designated area by Xhaka, and Zinny receives the pass from Partey. Xhaka is already well placed in the huge gap left ahead, and Zinchenko immediately delivers the ball forward to Xhaka.

Also, look at Arteta pointing to Zinny to pass it to Xhaka.

Xhaka makes a quick return pass to Trossard who was in acres of free space, as he continues running into the empty space in the box

Trossard releases the ball back to Xhaka in the box and bang, it's 3-0 for Arsenal.

So although it was a clumsy goal from Granit, it was a perfectly executed set of moves to attack the areas, and it looked like a typical training-pitch routine.

Well done to Arteta for managing to employ this mindset in his players, and also kudos to Granit and the rest for following Arteta's instructions to a T.

 

[OnlyOne]

I posted my analysis about those same tactical moves a year ago.

Good that Twitter and A-M are finally catching up

Always ahead of the game.

 

[RunTheTrap]

Yep, lovely to see. Mikel really turned Xhaka into something serious, the way he’s blossomed has been nice.

There’s another player AM don’t really like who has the intelligence and understanding to pick up that LCM role.

Vieira??

 

[RunTheTrap]

Isn't it funny how bad Martinelli and Zinchenko have looked this season without Xhaka? If only we signed a suitable replacement.

 

[fute]

He has to turn up vs Bayern. You can’t have a striker who never scored in big games

He scored the CL winner with Chelsea though.

 

[Legend14]

Agree with most here. He played ok from the 8, shouldn’t have been in the 8, wasn’t the sole reason why we lost.

On his good first half runs, he needed to finish, that's about it.

 

[Batman]

He scored the CL winner with Chelsea though.

Against Pep's City no less.