Mikel Arteta says Kai Havertz came through Wednesday night’s 45-minute outing against Kairat unscathed and is in contention to be involved when Arsenal face Leeds United at Elland Road on Saturday.
The German has endured a stop-start campaign, having worked his way back to full fitness in pre-season only to suffer a knee injury that required surgery. A return was initially targeted for early December, but a minor setback delayed that by another month.
Even now, the club remain mindful of managing the 26-year-old’s workload, making a second start in quick succession unlikely. All the same, Arteta – who was full of praise for Havertz in midweek – is clearly encouraged by the return of a foundational player.
“He is ready,” said Arteta when asked about Havertz’s availability in his pre-game press conference.
“Obviously, he started the other day; it’s been a long period, and now we need to manage that load and the games that we’re going to select for him to start. But there was no reaction to that. I think it was super positive, you could see straight away the impact that he can have in the team. So yes, he’s ready.”
With Havertz building fitness and Gabriel Jesus and Viktor Gyokeres also competing for minutes, Arteta has a selection puzzle to solve — although Havertz’s deployment in midfield on Wednesday suggests he is not viewed solely as a striker.
“We have different characteristics with the nines. But Kai can also play in different positions,” said the manager.
“His main quality is that he makes you better, the way he moves, communicates with you, gives you information, and moves around.
“He’s a very difficult player to mark, and especially he opens up a lot of spaces for the rest of the players, so I think they’re going to be very happy to have him around.”
Arteta went on to suggest Arsenal knew Havertz would be sidelined for “a long period” when Gyokeres arrived – hence the need to sign the Swede – although both were available at the start of the season, with Havertz even replacing Gyokeres at Old Trafford. Setting that aside, the manager did explain why he believes the pair can coexist on the pitch.
“The other night, we saw a lot of positive things. Obviously, it will depend on the opponent and how they behave, what formation they use, but there are options that are obviously really, really positive to the team.
“Whether he [Havertz] plays as a nine, as an attacking midfielder, and the other combinations, whether it’s at the start or throughout the game, I think it’s something very good and it can impact the game in a really powerful way.”
Wednesday night also saw Riccardo Calafiori return to the starting line-up for the first time this year. The Italian picked up a muscular problem in training, which he then aggravated in the warm-up ahead of the win over Brighton on 27 December, and his willingness to roam from left-back has been sorely missed.
On Calafiori’s availability, Arteta said: “Richy has been instrumental, especially in the way that we attack, and he has unique qualities to occupy spaces and to create things that, probably, the qualities of the other full-backs are different. So when we need them, they will be there. Now he’s fit, he’s available, and we’ll have to wait and see when we can use him.”
Aside from Max Dowman, Arsenal appear to have a clean bill of health. Jurrien Timber and William Saliba, both rested in midweek, have returned to full training, while Declan Rice and Mikel Merino, who served one-game Champions League suspensions against Kairat, will be restored to the squad.
“They [Saliba and Timber] are OK,” reported Arteta. “Obviously, they have been playing a lot of minutes, they’ve been carrying a few niggles and it was a really good opportunity for us to offload them a little bit and refresh them.”
On when supporters might next see Dowman – who suffered an ankle injury similar to Cristhian Mosquera’s in a behind-closed-doors friendly with Manchester United in early December – Arteta revealed: “It will be a little bit more than Mosquera’s.
“Obviously, he’s growing, and we need to be very careful and a little bit more protective. He has a different schedule as well because he needs to go to school, so we need to respect a lot of things throughout that process.
“But I think he’s quite close. He’s on the pitch now, he’s doing well, and hopefully we’re going to be able to see him soon.”
Arsenal confirmed earlier today that Dowman has committed his long-term future to the club, agreeing professional terms that will be formally signed when he turns 17.