Arse Online: What do we think of Kai Havertz?

Unless you've been living in a cave you will have heard by now that Arsenal have signed Kai Havertz from Chelsea for reported fee of £65 million. So what do we make of this signing?

Havertz played mainly as a false nine for Chelsea last season, with limited success, scoring only nine goals from 47 starts. It is doubtful whether he will fulfil the same role for Arsenal however, having been listed as a midfielder on the official Arsenal FC website. Instead, with Granit Xhaka now having left the club, Harvertz is expected to replace him in the 'number 8' role which Xhaka played so well last season.

This makes sense, as I believe Mikel Arteta wants to get more out of this position in an attacking sense without sacrificing too much defensively. This is why he tried both Fabio Vieira and Emile Smith Rowe in that position to a limited extent last season.

The only other option is that Declan Rice will play in Xhaka's old role and Thomas Partey and Jorginho will continue to play the defensive midfield role, with Kai Havertz being merely squad player. However, it is unlikely that Arteta would pay so much money for a player who he doesn't see as being in the starting eleven.

In the past, Havertz has played in the 'number 10' role; however, he has never played in the slightly deeper number 10 position or advanced 'number 8' that Arsenal are expected to use him in, essentially being the same position as Martin Odegaard but on the opposite side of the pitch - expected to perform the role of a traditional 'number 10' but also expect to drop back and help out defensively.

There is no avoiding the fact that paying such a big fee is a risk for a player that we will be asking to play a role that he is unfamiliar with is a bit of a risk; yet this is essentially what he did with Odegaard, albeit for a slightly smaller fee. And that worked out very well indeed.

Havertz has all the attributes required to succeed in this new role:.he works hard and he is physically fast and strong, but he also has the ability to arrive late in the box or the play the killer pass. Fans may need to be patient with him initially as he settles into the club and into the role, but he has the ability.

Anyway, only time will tell.

Image courtesy Marco Verch (Creative Commons 2.0)