Palace batter United + Havertz the perfect player for Mikel Arteta

Morning.

Like many of you, I’m sure, I watched Manchester United last night. They are our next opponents in the Premier League, our penultimate game of the season, and they were in action against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

Perhaps that’s the wrong way put it. Crystal Palace were in action, I don’t really know what United were, other than very, very bad. This is one of those where you don’t want to tempt fate, but talking about how poor they were last night isn’t that. I fully expect them to be better on Sunday, because that would be just typical. The randomness of football and variance in performance is something we’ll have to deal with.

However, their display against Palace was abysmal. Defensively they are a shambles, and Palace exploited that to great effect. Sure, the United back four was makeshift, but even so, they looked disorganised, and just couldn’t live with opposition players who played with real purpose. Obviously, I’m hoping this is a demoralising defeat, not one which sees them rally and respond for their final home game of the season.

Once again, Man Utd conceded 16 shots or more in a Premier League game. I think that’s 20 times this season? I could be wrong, but it’s a lot, and it’s really all on the manager. I saw a story last week about how Jim Ratcliffe, the new owner, was complaining about the training ground being a mess, so much so that he threatened to cancel any Christmas parties (I know, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me in early May either). But if he’s annoyed about dirty socks and grubby showers, what must he think about what a mess United are on the pitch too?

Obviously I have zero inside info about that club, but I would be astonished if Erik ten Hag wasn’t sacked at the end of the season. He has got them to an FA Cup final, of course, and perhaps winning that game might save his bacon, but that looked to me like the kind of performance that comes as a result of the manager losing the dressing room. Maybe not all of them, but enough, and when you consider these are all pretty much his signings, it doesn’t augur well for him.

Let’s hope we can cause them just as many problems as Palace did when we go to Old Trafford on Sunday. Also, if Arsenal aren’t looking seriously at Michael Olise this summer, there’s something wrong. I know he’s had some hamstring problems, but he’s such a talented player, and still only 22. There’s loads of room to improve from a fitness perspective, but 9 goals and 4 assists this season in 17 appearances in an injury hit campaign is a very interesting return. I think there’s a versatility to him that hasn’t been unlocked yet, and Mikel Arteta feels like just the man to do that. Let’s see.

Speaking of which, Kai Havertz was named as the Arsenal Player of the Month yesterday. I think that’s well deserved – which is quite the compliment when you consider how well this team has been playing and the high performance levels from some others. They did a bit on him last night on Monday night football, and how he impacts the team in the centre-forward position.

They highlighted the work he does off the ball, and for me this is absolutely key to why he has become a mainstay under Arteta. Even in those opening months of the season when he was finding his feet and settling in, that aspect of game was evident. The other things, like the pace of his passing, the sharpness of his movement, the decisiveness in his finishing, they all took their time to arrive, but never once was he found wanting in terms of workrate.

He ticks so many of the boxes for Arteta. He’s always available, he’ll put in those hard yards often for little tangible reward but which do make a difference to the overall performance, and there’s now consistent end-product to his game. What’s so interesting to me is the fact that with a bigger man up top, we’ve leaned into that to maximise what his height can give us.

I looked up the stats on his aerial duels last week, and they are quite striking. I compared him to William Saliba and Gabriel, the two players you’d expect to be most involved in those and here’s now they stacked up in all competitions this season.

William Saliba – Aerial duels: 192 – Success rate: 52%

Gabriel – Aerial duels: 239 – Success rate: 54%

Kai Havertz – Aerial duels: 306 – Success rate: 43%

You would expect a striker’s success rate to be lower than a centre-half, but it’s the volume of them that really stands out. I do think it’s fascinating to consider when you try and put it in the context of this current Arsenal team. There’s no question this is a modern side, with a manager who is tactically astute and innovative, but which also has at its core some fundamentals you might associate with a ‘bygone’ era. The defensive solidity, the set-piece prowess, the use of a big man up top to give you an outlet, the hard running of a more technically limited team to make up for that shortfall. But combine it all with those modern elements, the high technical level etc, and you get a team that can compete for the title against Cease and Desist FC.

This reality was hammered home last week after the North London derby when the Spurs manager basically said he didn’t think there was any need to pay special attention to defending set-pieces. His team then went on to lose their next game by conceding to two set-pieces. For Arteta, every single detail matters. Every single aspect of the game is important, because so many games are decided on fine margins that if you pick and choose, if you ignore the ones you don’t feel are to your taste, you increase the odds of being on the wrong end of them.

Havertz goes a long way to encapsulate that. He’s not a perfect player, but then few are. What he is though, is perfect for this team right now. Not just the first line of attack, but the first line of defence, with enough stamina and energy to deliver key passes, goals and assists in the heat of a title race. I don’t know if he’s going to be the man to lead the line next season, but right now, there isn’t anybody better to do the job Mikel Arteta wants.

Right, that’s your lot. There’s an Arsecast Extra out if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, and later on we’ll have an episode of The 30 (our Premier League review podcast) over on Patreon.

Until then.

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