**Mikel Arteta**reflected on his relationships with two old members of the Bayer Leverkusen camp.
As **Arsenal**travel to Germany for the **Champions League**Round of 16, **Kai Havertz**has the chance to compete against the club that gave him his breakthrough as a professional footballer before he moved to **Chelsea**in the summer of 2020. The club have been carefully managing his rehab back to a position of health, and Arteta hopes his flexible attacker can stay fit for the rest of the campaign.
Meanwhile, there were words about Xabi Alonso, a fellow Basque of Arteta and the former head coach of Leverkusen, whom the **Arsenal**manager made clear that he is not relying on for intel.
*“Not too much [did we watch **Kai Havertz**at **Bayer Leverkusen*] to be fair because in our league and with the amount of games that we play we don't have much time to analyse an individual player in a different country. But I did speak to him, he spent 10 incredible years here.
“The way he talks about the club, the people here, the culture, what he's learned and how hard this journey was for him to continue his next chapter in England. A lot of learnings and I'm glad to see how people are receiving him the moment he's walking around the building, and I'm not surprised.
“Now it's been three weeks that he’s had total consistency in terms of training, preparation and gametime, and we're going to continue to roll that because we know how Kai can impact this team.
“When you look at his injury record, it’s just blank. He never had a muscle injury and last year he had his hamstring injury that required surgery and then the knee injury, so it's been a tough period. But as well a lot of great things happened in his private life as well.
“When you talk about a 15 - 20-year career, you're going to have to go unfortunately, most likely, through these moments. If there is a person that has the right combination of humbleness, patience and love for the game and a competitive edge, that's certain Kai.
“He had difficult moments but that's why we are here and all his teammates and family are there. Now he needs to really enjoy all the work that he's put in to see the results at the end of the season.
*“I have spoken a lot and I admire incredibly what [**Xabi Alonso*] did for this football club and the group of players because it was something historic and unique. But no, I haven't had the courage to speak to him and put him in that situation.
“I know how he is feeling about the club, and as well because I think we have two players as well that have been with this club recently, with this team and they’ve given us quite a lot of information.”