LONDON — It was more than a little curious to see Mikel Arteta so candidly admit on more than one occasion in recent days that his Arsenal side lack the “huge” influence of Martin Odegaard as their club captain deals with an ankle injury. It’s no shocking revelation that Arsenal are a changed side without one of the game’s great playmakers, playmakers and press directors. It’s just managers tend not to really say it. Even more so when they are as silent as Arteta usually is.
Arsenal’s search for a guiding light did not last long, however. This measured, robust thrashing by a presumptive Champions League contender crystallized a feeling that had been building for some time around north London. For the moment at least, Arsenal is a team in the image of Kai Havertz.
Impressive, organized and with an eye for gaps the defense seems completely unaware of: this team doesn’t need the 60 percent possession and 25 shots they might crave when Odegaard sets the terms of engagement. There will be no time to set up your defensive lines, Arsenal will simply win the ball back and go at you.
From the three minutes David Raya proved himself perfectly willing to go as far as he could, cutting the ball behind the Paris Saint-Germain back line to put Gabriel Martinelli in a foot race with the skittish Gianluigi Donnarumma. Whenever the moment called for it, this was a team that was perfectly prepared for their centre-forward to drop into space at the back, win the header and get Arsenal moving.
After all too long he was doing it often enough that no one in a PSG shirt seemed to spot him ghosting through the defensive line as they all converged on the danger elsewhere. Leandro Trossard was altogether more alive to the movements of Havertz, dropping the ball in just the right place for a struck header by the striker. Not for the last time tonight, Donnarumma did not cover himself in glory.
Then again, credit should go to Havertz. He may have arrived in north London convinced he should no longer be a centre-forward, but he is extremely good at it. Like all the best strikers, he has that sense of where the defense’s attention is and isn’t. And so when three PSG shirts were lasered on Bukayo Saka on the left flank, he simply ran around them, flying to the sideline to deliver a dangerous low cross. For a lanky, 6-foot-4 center forward with quite a reputation to his name, Havertz seemed remarkably difficult to spot for the Parisians.
Even considering the ghostly qualities of their centre-forward, this is Arsenal at their most smashing mouth. If that seems like an odd description for Havertz and the team that takes his picture, you just haven’t been watching him closely enough. Yes, the zero completed passes caught the eye after the draw with Manchester City but no one better typified the industry of a team with its back to the Etihad wall.
It seems almost nostalgic to return to the difficulties Havertz had in those early months after leaving Chelsea. More of his time in north London was now defined by his excellence than his early works. His record at the Emirates in 2024 is indeed impressive: nine goals and three assists at a rate of one every 99 minutes. Hardly a game goes by without that unbearable interpolation of his transfer in Shakira’s “Waka Waka”.
At his home away from home Havertz has settled into the role of Arsenal’s main presser, the Gunners excelling from away at channeling PSG out to the flanks. From there they would force the pass up the line, particularly down their right flank, where Jurrien Timber seemed to relish inflicting his previously unknown bullying ball qualities on Bradley Barcola.
From front to back, Mikel Arteta’s men were simply stronger than Luis Enrique’s. After Bukayo Saka’s free-kick eluded everyone – the first direct free-kick they had won since Odegaard bent one into Burnley’s top bins in September 2021 – they only needed to deploy those qualities fleetingly. William Saliba and San Gabriel would push out a leg and a counter was blocked, Rice would drive through midfield, Havertz would pull a foul with his back to goal. This has the appearance of a winning formula.
That doesn’t mean Arsenal need to tear up the formula that has taken them to domestic and European contention, as they will surely find themselves in the coming months. Indeed there is nothing stopping them from playing this way when Odegaard returns to click into the press. Instead Arsenal have found another way to win, and are doing so in style against high-profile opponents (at least on paper). That the approach could be defined by a man on whom Arteta has invested such personal capital only makes this serene progress through what was meant to be trying times sweeter.
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