Kai Havertz Owns Chelsea
Kai Havertz Owns Chelsea
Plus: The Italian tradition of stars for championships.
In a way, Kai Havertz was the player that Chelsea replaced with the attacking talisman we highlighted last week. In June, Arsenal showed up with £65 million and took the German across London after a difficult few years at Stamford Bridge. Havertz had scored the goal to win a Champions League final, but after some middling seasons that mirrored the team overall, his relationship with the club was in precipitous decline. He’d lost the love of the fans and the trust of the hierarchy. So off he went, replaced for £25 million less with The Cold One.
Cole Palmer was missing from the lineup on Tuesday evening when the two clubs met at the Emirates Stadium, however. There was no opportunity for a mano a mano. Instead, Havertz thumped in a brace as Arsenal trampled and terrorized the old enemy who’ve enjoyed supremacy in London for most of the last two decades.
The Gunners were blazing in this one, dominating the Blues in every area: the best centerback pairing in the league, Gabriel and William Saliba, imposed themselves on poor Nicolas Jackson up front; the deep-midfield pairing that many Arsenal fans have been crying out for, Declan Rice and Thomas Partey, made Chelsea’s £222 million midfield partnership of Moisés Caicedo and Enzo Fernández look worthless. And Arsenal’s attacking quartet of Leandro Trossard, Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, and Havertz tormented a Chelsea defense that Mauricio Pochettino bizarrely chose to shake up after a decent performance against Manchester City in the FA Cup semifinal last weekend. The new centerback pairing of Axel Disasi and Benoît Badiashile was downright tragic.
Chelsea had a few chances to break in the first half, but Arsenal’s physicality bore down upon them, defenders and midfielders snapping at their heels when they received the ball into feet in midfield. For many years, this was the slinky Arsenal passing maestros against a physically dominant team in blue, but times have changed. Mikel Arteta’s team have married the physical side to the artistry on the ball, and it was only a couple of big saves from Đorđe Petrović and Arsenal’s somewhat casual attitude in the 18-yard box that kept the West Londoners from going into halftime three or more goals down.
Havertz was part of that story, but luckily he plays with the aforementioned Ødegaard. The chances were flowing. The Norwegian is in scintillating form, tip-toeing around the midfield and the opponents’ third, popping up here and there and everywhere to receive a pass on the half-turn, spray it out wide or slice through the enemy with a through ball, his exquisite touch bringing all under control in an instant. He showed what Palmer will have to build into his game if he wants to make it to this level, and that’s not even mentioning the Arsenal captain’s extraordinary work rate off the ball. He is a pressing monster and he never stops running, even 98 minutes into this one when I could scarcely believe he was still on the pitch.
About 48 minutes earlier, he’d taken a scalpel to the Chelsea defense, removing five players from the game with a single pass that found Havertz scampering in behind. The German was denied again by Petrović, but a minute or so later, Ben White swept home a second and the floodgates opened. A few minutes after that, Ødegaard picked the ball up behind the halfway line and threaded yet another through ball in to Havertz, once again defenestrating players from the game to find the #29 in behind. He took a couple of touches, holding off Marc Cucarella with one arm before thumping a shot that clipped Petrović on its way into the net. Not long after that, Bukayo Saka darted inside Cucurella on the dribble to get himself into the box and find Havertz, who smacked another in off the post to well and truly demolish his former employers.
There is now a 30-point gap between Arsenal and Chelsea in the league table. The North Londoners are three points clear at the top of the league, while after a decent last couple of months, Chelsea are still ninth. They’ve lost six of their last eight matches against Arsenal and drawn another. It’s all fairly astounding from where I sit as a Gooner who spent his formative years getting bludgeoned by Didier Drogba, José Mourinho, Frank Lampard and the rest. These two clubs have switched places in a number of ways, and one much-maligned man has switched allegiances without regret.
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In Italy, you get a star on your jersey above the crest for every 10th Scudetto you secure. It’s a variation on the tradition for national teams who’ve won the World Cup, except you need 10 times the trophies for each star. Inter Milan defeated their eternal rivals A.C. Milan on Monday night, and they did not just clinch the Serie A title at the San Siro. They clinched their 20th—their second star—before Milan, who also came into this season with 19 victories.
It was a historic disaster for Milanistas and a truly great day for the Interisti, but it also got me thinking about what this might look like in other leagues:
Premier League: Man United (2 stars), Liverpool and Arsenal (1 star, though Liverpool are one title away from a second)
Ligue 1: PSG and Saint-Étienne (1 star)
La Liga: Real Madrid (3 stars), Barcelona (2 stars), Atlético Madrid (1 star)
Bundesliga: Bayern Munich (3 stars)
Eredivisie: Ajax (3 stars), PSV (2 stars), Feyenoord (1 star), ADO Den Haag (1 star)
And by the way, for all that talk of the Milan clubs, Juventus have three. They’ve won the Italian league 36 times.⚽︎