{"id":600072,"date":"2021-08-26T12:18:13","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T16:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=600072"},"modified":"2021-08-26T12:18:13","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T16:18:13","slug":"kai-havertz-chelsea-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/08\/26\/kai-havertz-chelsea-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Kai Havertz: Slowly Becoming a Key Part of Thomas Tuchel\u2019s Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chelsea<\/a> didn\u2019t just dominate Arsenal<\/a>, they taught them a lesson. Only one Arsenal player impressed on the day, Emil Smith Rowe, whilst every Chelsea player on the pitch looked phenomenal. Romelu Lukaku has grabbed many of the headlines so far because of his outstanding debut performance, but it was Kai Havertz that maybe would have pipped him to the Man of the Match award had it not been the Belgium\u2019s \u2018second debut\u2019.<\/p>\n

Kai Havertz: Proving Doubters Wrong<\/h2>\n

Unbelievable Freedom for Havertz<\/h3>\n

All eyes were on the return of Romelu Lukaku going into Sunday\u2019s game at the Emirates and rightly so. If you are to pay \u00a397 millio for a striker then he better perform from the get go. And He did.<\/p>\n

Lukaku was phenomenal in the match, bullying Pablo Mari<\/a> in defence and creating chance after chance and nabbing a goal on his return. His goal was fittingly in the 15th minute considering he had played 15 games for Chelsea before the game. Lukaku had eight shots<\/a> throughout the game and probably should have scored at least two if it wasn\u2019t for the big hand of Bernd Leno<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What was more important, however, was the space that Lukaku endlessly created for his team, and in particular, Chelsea\u2019s young German star, Kai Havertz.<\/p>\n

By pinning his defender, Lukaku pushed Arsenal\u2019s whole backline to the edge of their own box, leaving space for Havertz in between Arsenal\u2019s<\/a> midfield and attack. Havertz then had the ability to move about the pitch with ease, picking up little spots, and linking the play extremely well.<\/p>\n

Everyone thought that Werner would be the beneficiary of Lukaku\u2019s arrival, but it looks like it could be Havertz.<\/p>\n

The Moments That Made Kai Havertz Stand Out<\/h3>\n

Kai Havertz has struggled at times at Chelsea as he has been forced to do a variety of jobs. For one, he has had to play in Lukaku\u2019s role many times as Chelsea\u2019s main striker, Timo Werner doesn\u2019t have the physique to be able to match up to defenders in the same way.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that Havertz didn\u2019t do this role successfully, most notably in the Champions League final against Manchester City, where he worked well alongside the movement of Timo Werner to score the winning goal, he had some of his best moments in a Chelsea shirt.<\/p>\n

Havertz looked much more comfortable with Lukaku alongside him, however, as he was able to drop into deeper positions and play against Arsenal\u2019s midfield rather than their attackers. Although tall, Havertz doesn\u2019t quite have the strength to take on centre-backs and is much more comfortable against full-backs and midfielders.<\/p>\n

The first stand-out moment came as Havertz received the ball in his own half. With no one around him, since Lukaku had taken care of both centre-backs, he had the best route to drive forward, look up and play a phenomenal through ball down the right-hand side to Reece James. Havertz is particularly strong when deep in the pitch as he is great on the ball.<\/p>\n

The second moment culminated in Chelsea\u2019s second goal of the game. Havertz was given the ball in a difficult situation by Alonso, but held off his defender to play an excellent reverse pass down the line. As the move continued, the space opened up for Reece James who buried the chance.<\/p>\n

Havertz here was given the opportunity to drift wide, where usually he wasn\u2019t able to as he had to allow Werner to be the runner.<\/p>\n

What This Means for the Rest of the Season<\/h3>\n

Chelsea have such a great squad this season that they will regularly be rotating their attacking line-up based on the opposition they are facing. This weekend it looks most likely that Werner will start alongside Lukaku in an attempt to expose Liverpool\u2019s high line as they did last year.<\/p>\n

Havertz\u2019 issue this year is that Mason Mount is almost impossible to drop with his form over the last two years. Other players such as Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner are also in good form, and that means it will be hard to nail down a spot in the starting 11. If the weekend was anything to go by, however, Havertz has the ability to stand out from the pack and dominate the league this year, with the potential to add a league title to last season\u2019s Champions League.<\/p>\n

Main Photo
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>