Sky Sports News’ Dharmesh Sheth wouldn’t be surprised to see Kai Havertz start up front against Sevilla during Wednesday night’s Champions League group game at the Emirates.
The Gunners, who come into tonight’s important game top of Group B on six points after three games, will be looking to take a huge step toward knockout round qualification.
They must first get past Diego Alonso’s men though, and that won’t be a straightforward task. Although the Gunners beat the La Liga side 2-1 in the reverse fixture, tonight’s matchup is almost certain to be a different game, and that will largely be down to Arsenal’s mini-injury crisis.
Gabriel Jesus, who was absent from team training on Tuesday, is ruled out through injury and strike partner Eddie Nketiah is also a doubt.
Consequently, with both first-choice strikers likely to miss tonight’s game, Sheth has predicted that Havertz could be given a new attacking role by Arteta.
“Potential selection dilemma for the Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta ahead of this game against Sevilla, particularly because yesterday in the open training session, Eddie Nketiah was not present,” Sheth told Sky Sports.
“He was nursing a knock from the Newcastle United game, and we were told a late assessment would be made.
“If Nketiah doesn’t make it, I wonder, does that open the door for someone like Kai Havertz?
“His Arsenal career has got off to a slow start; hasn’t probably gone the way he and Arsenal would have wanted it to but he has got pedigree in this competition of course. [He] scored the winning goal in the Champions League final for Chelsea against Manchester City back in 2021.”
Tonight’s Group B game, which is set to kick-off at 8 p.m. (UK time), will be broadcast live on TNT Sports.
Out of AFC’s four summer signings Rice and Timber were great,Reya is a good keeper maybe or maybe not better than Ramsdale the jury’s out on that one but man Kai Havertz !
65 million pounds !! Omg !!! Chelsea must have been laughing all the way to the bank when they sold him.
I would seriously like to hear Artetas thoughts on how this guy could improve AFC when he plays its like playing with ten men.