{"id":93466,"date":"2023-09-22T17:21:45","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T17:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stopsmokingway.com\/?p=93466"},"modified":"2023-09-22T17:21:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T17:21:45","slug":"graeme-souness-im-not-having-kai-havertz-at-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stopsmokingway.com\/soccer\/graeme-souness-im-not-having-kai-havertz-at-arsenal\/","title":{"rendered":"GRAEME SOUNESS: I'm not having Kai Havertz at Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"
Arsenal have carried a very heavy piece of baggage into this season. The knowledge that they lost their nerve last spring.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sorry, but you can\u2019t dress up what happened to their last Premier League campaign any other way. They were in the box seat heading into the home stretch of the season and they didn\u2019t perform.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That little seed in their heads will be there until they win that competition. But I like the Arsenal squad I see \u2014 and although it doesn\u2019t always follow that they will get better year on year, they\u2019re a group of young men who should do exactly that.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll have a far better picture about Arsenal and Tottenham\u00a0by 5pm on Sunday. The intensity of a huge north London derby and two teams playing with great confidence adds up to the first proper test that either of the clubs have faced this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve each played only one team in the top 10, so far \u2014 and given\u00a0Manchester United\u2019s early season form, we really can\u2019t read too much into the fact that both teams have beaten them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
David Raya, left, and Aaron Ramsdale, right, are both competing to be Arsenal’s No 1<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has built an impressive side but fell short in the title race last season<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
But the jury remains out on Arteta’s decision to spend \u00a365million this summer on Kai Havertz<\/p>\n
Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n
I like the fact that David Raya and Aaron Ramsdale are competing for the goalkeeper\u2019s jersey and certainly do not subscribe to this modern view that you \u2018make the goalkeepers nervous\u2019 by having them vying for the spot.<\/p>\n
Nervous? Oh diddums! Are you seriously going to tell me next that Ramsdale, who\u2019s missed out in the past two matches, should be heading straight to Arsenal\u2019s HR department? If someone challenges the established goalkeeper, then so much the better.<\/p>\n
Not all of Arsenal\u2019s spending makes sense to me. They\u2019ve laid out \u00a365million on Kai Havertz. Surely you\u2019re not spending that kind of money on what he\u2019s shown at Chelsea in the past three seasons? They\u2019ve shelled out in the hope that Mikel Arteta can get a very, very different tune out of him than Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel or Graham Potter ever did. Good luck with that one, Mikel.<\/p>\n
We live in a world where stats have become a very popular part of the game for the anoraks. But historically only two stats provide a judgment in black and white terms. For a goalkeeper: how many games have you played and how many clean sheets did you keep? And for a striker: how many games have you played and how many goals did you score? Havertz has scored 19 Premier League goals across the entirety of three seasons for Chelsea. Please draw your own conclusions.<\/p>\n
Arsenal do have some very good players in their team. Gabriel Jesus, back after two knee operations in 12 months, who is lively, aggressive, brave and can hopefully now just get on with his career. I really like Bukayo Saka \u2014 who is going to be a top player in our football for a decade, barring injury \u2014 and Martin Odegaard, who seems to be getting better and better.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also evidence that Declan Rice is becoming more adventurous and more of a goal threat this season. I have offered my own observations of how he can make himself better, which I would hope is viewed as a good thing. I\u2019m sure Arteta felt that productivity at the top end of the pitch was an area where he could help Declan improve. I hope he goes on to score 10 goals a season regularly in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bukayo Saka looks like he going to be a top player for a decade in the Premier League<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Declan Rice is becoming more adventurous since joining but can still add goals to his game\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has enjoyed a good start and his team will test Arsenal\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m pleased to see that Ange Postecoglou has had a super start and won over supporters after a season that Tottenham will want to forget. But Spurs are more of an unknown quantity than Arsenal this weekend. They\u2019re the team with a new manager, being asked to play a slightly different way in an away fixture they\u2019ve won only twice in the past 30 years. For me, Arsenal look the stronger, despite Spurs\u2019 position at second in the table.<\/p>\n
Arsenal are operating intelligently. The most important thing at any football club is recruitment and their performance in that department since Arteta took over is up there with Manchester City, Liverpool and Brighton. The Premier League needs a strong Arsenal, one of the great institutions of our football, to be challenging for the Premier League. They also have the demands of the Champions League to deal with this season, which is why I don\u2019t see them winning the Premier League. I do see them finishing in the top three.<\/p>\n
No one will be thinking about title ambitions this weekend, though. Victory in one of the most keenly anticipated fixtures on the calendar will be enough.<\/p>\n
Time will tell if Harry Kane has made the right move\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It was a very poor Bayern Munich team I watched play Manchester United this week in the Champions League. They have some exciting young players up front but it was an ordinary performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Germany team are also the most modest group of players that country has fielded in my lifetime. Are Bayern a reflection of the state of the Bundesliga, the national team and German football right now?\u00a0<\/p>\n Harry Kane had five touches in the United area and two shots on goal on Wednesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n If that\u2019s Bayern\u2019s normal level, he might soon be questioning whether he\u2019s made the right move.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Harry Kane scored against Man United but Bayern Munich looked an ordinary side in their win<\/p>\n My double bubbly reward from a grateful Fergie\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I received a case of champagne from Sir Alex Ferguson a few months before the game between his team and Arsenal 20 years ago, remembered as the Battle of Old Trafford.<\/p>\n They were the two best teams by a country mile at the time and United always started out with one idea in their heads: \u2018We\u2019re going to be super aggressive against this team and see how they deal with it.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure those would have been the last words from Fergie, ringing in their ears when they went out the dressing room door. His United team set about Arsenal every time they played them. It\u2019s how it should be.<\/p>\n United got the better of Arsenal the previous season and that\u2019s where the champagne from Fergie came in. I was manager of Blackburn Rovers in 2003 and the case was awaiting me when I arrived at the training ground one morning in May that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019d done the double over Arsenal \u2014 beating them 2-1 at Highbury and 2-0 in our stadium \u2014 on the way to a sixth-place finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those wins were obviously an enormous help to United clinching the league title that year, because they won it by five points. Fergie made sure I knew.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The 20th anniversary of Man United and Arsenal’s\u00a0Battle of Old Trafford was marked this week<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sir Alex Ferguson sent Graeme Souness champagne after his Blackburn side beat Arsenal twice<\/p>\n Long live Henry the first<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n I inadvertently uttered the words \u2018Thierry Henry\u2019 at a Q&A in Dublin last week. That\u2019s been a blasphemy in those parts ever since his handball deprived the Republic of Ireland of a place in the 2010 World Cup!<\/p>\n But what a player he was. During my time as Blackburn manager, when we had a corner against Arsenal and sent our centre backs up, he would be standing on the half-way line, always on the right-hand side, waiting for the ball to be cleared to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n I asked Lucas Neill, our quickest defender, to stand on Thierry\u2019s toes on that half-way line. I would tell him: \u2018Ignore our corner and just concentrate on Thierry. Get touch-tight to him, even if the ball is nowhere near you. And if the ball comes your way, don\u2019t, whatever you do, let him turn with the ball and get in a race with you.\u2019<\/p>\n We had a good record against Arsenal but for a couple of years Thierry was the best player in the world, no question.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For a couple of years Thierry Henry should have been seen as the best player in the world<\/p>\n It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\nIT’S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n