Arsenal have signed German international Kai Havertz from Chelsea for a fee of around £50million completed earlier this week.
The German becomes Mikel Arteta’s first signing of the summer as the Spaniard looks to push on after the Gunners’ second place finish last season.
‘It’s super exciting for me to be joining this amazing club and to be part of the Arsenal family. This club has such a big history, and I hope we can achieve lots of things,’ Havertz, who will wear the No 29 shirt, said.
By referring to Havertz as a midfielder, Arteta appeared to confirm what was widely reported earlier this month – that Havertz will be used on the left side of Arsenal’s midfield three as a more attack-minded replacement for Granit Xhaka, rather than as a centre forward where he played for most of his career at Chelsea.
‘Kai is a player of top quality,’ he said. ‘He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield and variety to our play.
He impressed in Leverkusen in that attacking midfield role and sources at Arsenal are excited at the potential he has in that position for Arteta’s side.
The German has been a regular at Stamford Bridge, featuring across the front-line, and he spent most of last season as the Blues’ striker amid their struggles up-front.
In total, Havertz racked up 139 appearances for the club, scoring 32 goals and adding 15 assists.
He will be most remembered for netting the winning goal in the 2021 Champions League final when the Blues won the European Cup for the second time in their history thanks to a 1-0 victory over Man City.
During the 2022-23 campaign, Havertz contributed seven goals and one assist in 35 Premier League games.
