Kai Havertz during Arsenal’s win over Man City (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
It looks like bad news on the Kai Havertz injury front after it first emerged he had a hamstring issue yesterday evening.
Havertz now looks set to miss the rest of the season with this injury, with further updates coming this morning as the team return to London from Dubai.
It will be interesting to hear what Mikel Arteta has to say about it at his press conference on Friday morning, but there’s really no other way to look at this other than as a hammer blow to Arsenal’s trophy chances this season, especially with the injury coming on the back of the news that Gabriel Martinelli will be out for at least a month with his own hamstring problem.
It is unfortunate obviously. You do need luck with injuries throughout a season and Arsenal have had no luck whatsoever since the summer.
“I was out PARTYING and slacking in training – I knew I wasn’t going to play anyway!” – which former Arsenal star regrets letting Wenger down?
But the fact is Arsenal have left themselves wide open to something like this happening. It was glaringly obvious throughout January that they needed to do something to protect themselves in attack over the second half of the season.
They were short of options going into the transfer window and then they lost Gabriel Jesus. They should have acted then, but they didn’t and they’ve only got themselves to blame for the situation they find themselves in.
I know it’s difficult to do business in January but we saw players move to other clubs during the month that could have strengthened the options Arteta had available to him.
There were players on the market that could have helped, even on loan, but Arsenal let them go elsewhere and now, since the window has closed, they have lost Martinelli and now Havertz for even longer.
Arsenal don’t have much left in attack
So Arteta basically has Leandro Trossard, Raheem Sterling and Ethan Nwaneri available in attack and that’s it.
It’s crazy really that they find themselves in this situation. It’s just poor planning. Yes, they have been unlucky, but if you plan well you can ensure you have enough to protect yourselves from any bad luck that comes your way.
Arsenal have done that in defence. They have suffered plenty of injuries at the back this season but because they have so many options there in the squad that they have been able to cope with those injuries well.
But in attack they just haven’t used the last couple of windows well enough to strengthen and protect themselves and now they are paying the price for that.
It’s easy to understand why the fans are so frustrated.
