Arsenal face an anxious wait to discover the extent of Kai Havertz’s injury, after footage emerged of the striker limping heavily on the club’s training camp in Dubai.
An injury to Havertz, for any length of time, would represent a nightmare scenario for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, who would be left with only three fit forwards in his entire squad after Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus all suffered serious injuries.
The video footage of Havertz, filmed earlier in the week, shows the German walking gingerly in Dubai while surrounded by Arsenal backroom staff. Havertz is believed to have suffered the problem in a training session.
While the scale of the issue is currently unconfirmed, Havertz’s injury scare will have forced Arteta to consider the alternative options at his disposal. Here, Telegraph Sport assesses four potential solutions if Havertz is ruled out of action.
Repurpose a senior player
Desperate times call for desperate measures and, if Havertz’s injury is serious, Arteta might feel compelled to re-train one of his existing first-team players as a forward.
Could Kieran Tierney or Oleksandr Zinchenko, for example, operate as wingers in Arsenal’s system? Tierney played on the wing in his academy days at Celtic but that was a long time ago, and it would certainly be an unfamiliar set of demands for the Scotland international. On the other hand, he is one of the best crossers of the ball in Arsenal’s squad.
Zinchenko has only ever operated as a left-back since joining Arsenal from Manchester City, but did play in more advanced midfield roles earlier in his career. For Ukraine, he often plays in midfield.
Elsewhere in the squad, Mikel Merino has impressed with his work in the penalty box and would be capable of attacking crosses with his aerial prowess. Some of his best work for Arsenal has been in the penalty area and, in terms of long balls and crosses, he is probably the most obvious target man at Arteta’s disposal.
Whether the Spaniard is capable of running in behind opposition defences and drifting into wide areas is, however, another question entirely. It is unlikely he would start in such a position but it feels faintly possible that the midfielder could move there late in matches, if Arsenal are chasing a goal.
Trossard down the middle
The most likely solution for Arsenal would be to deploy Leandro Trossard as a central striker. The Belgian appears to be the leading candidate for the role, having played there against Girona last month when Havertz was on the bench.
It is not Trossard’s natural position but the demands of the role would not be entirely unfamiliar to him. Last season he started six games in the striker position, with largely positive results. He was in that role for Arsenal’s commanding victories at West Ham United and Burnley a year ago.
To deploy the 30-year-old in the central position would probably require a change in structure, though. When he has played there before, Trossard has largely operated as a “false nine”, dropping into deeper and wider areas to help Arsenal build their play. Last season, this allowed Havertz to dart forward from midfield areas.
This time around, Arsenal might need players such as Declan Rice and Mikel Merino to be more willing to run in behind and stretch the opposition defence. Neither player is accustomed to doing so.
Another wide player who could come inside, into a more central position, is Raheem Sterling, who has previously played as a striker at various points of his club career.
Accelerate Nwaneri masterplan
Arteta said in December that Ethan Nwaneri, the teenage sensation in Arsenal’s squad, could develop into a centre-forward over time. “Ethan can play as a right attacking midfielder, left attacking midfielder, as a right winger and there is another position he can develop into in a few years time: nine,” said the Arsenal manager.
“[When] he’s got the goal in front of him, he just looks at the goal. He has a tremendous ability to put the ball in the back of the net.”
Clearly, it was not Arteta’s plan to push Nwaneri into this position so soon. But there must be a temptation to do so, given the 17-year-old’s technical ability and obvious finishing prowess.
Nwaneri has demonstrated his ability in front of goal by already scoring seven goals this season, in only 700 minutes of first-team action. An indication of his quality is that only Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney (nine each) have scored more goals for a Premier League side while aged 17 or younger.
There can be no doubts about Nwaneri’s finishing ability, then. But playing as a striker for Arsenal requires far more than an eye for goal. Can he hold the ball under pressure? Can he attack crosses? Can he make the runs in behind that create space for others? Those in favour of using Nwaneri as a striker would say there is only one way to find out.
Look to academy
Under Arteta, Arsenal have previously had success in using the academy in times of need. It was at the low point of Arteta’s tenure, in the winter of the 2020/21 season, that he threw Emile Smith Rowe into the fold and transformed Arsenal’s campaign.
Are there any young players who could be called upon this year? Perhaps the most likely candidate is Nathan Butler-Oyedeji, a 22-year-old striker who has regularly been on the bench in recent weeks. He made a brief appearance as a substitute during Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb last month.
It would be inaccurate, though, to suggest that Butler-Oyedeji has long been regarded as a potential first-team star. At 22, he is five years older than Nwaneri. Butler-Oyedeji has had two loan spells away from the club, at Accrington Stanley and Cheltenham Town, but failed to score in a combined 24 appearances for those two clubs.
Young winger Ismeal Kabia could come into the fold as a backup option on the flanks. The 19-year-old has been around the first-team squad on a few occasions this season and made his senior debut in September’s League Cup victory over Bolton Wanderers.
Another winger who has previously sampled first-team action is 20-year-old Charles Sagoe Jr, who spent the first half of this season on loan at Shrewsbury Town. That loan deal was cut short after he made only five league starts.
It is tempting to wonder whether highly-rated striker Chido Obi-Martin would have been given a first-team opportunity at Arsenal, if he had not moved to Manchester United in October. He had a remarkable goalscoring record in the academy and Arsenal had hoped to keep him at the club.
