Kai Havertz the hero but Arsenal make slow start to life without Bukayo Saka | OneFootball

Gunners will need to show much more creativity without their injured talisman, who is unlikely to return until March

Arsenal rounded off 2024 with a victory as they beat Ipswich 1-0 to move up to second in the Premier League table.

The winger will likely be out for “more than two months” following hamstring surgery according to Mikel Arteta, and Arsenal will need to show more creativity than this.

Ipswich were not given a sniff all night, attempting three shots all game and none on target, as Arsenal kept their seventh clean sheet in the Premier League this season.

No side has kept more than that, while no team has conceded fewer goals than Arsenal’s 16 in the top-flight so far in 2024/25. Here are three key talking points after Arsenal’s win.

Arsenal get off to slow start without Saka

Around the New Year is typically a time for fireworks, but there was none of that at the Emirates Stadium on Friday night.

Instead, Arsenal and Ipswich played out a game that will not live long in the memory for anyone involved.

It had all the hallmarks of that time in-between Boxing Day and New Year, when no one really knows what day it is as they drift along in a slumber.

Arsenal had plenty of the ball early on, including over 90 per cent of the possession in the first 25 minutes, and that set the tone.

Ipswich were happy to sit deep, playing in a 5-2-3 formation that involved all 11 of their players being camped inside their own half.

For Arsenal, it was a case of breaking them down and, without their talisman Saka, they struggled. Havertz proved to be their hero, but Arteta will have plenty to ponder as he looks for solutions going forward.

Havertz rounds off 2024 in fitting fashion

It was only a year ago that serious questions were being asked about Havertz’s move from Chelsea to Arsenal.

By this stage last season, after joining Arsenal for £65million, the German had scored just five goals.

Havertz looked out of sorts playing in midfield and Arteta’s pet project seemed like it was set to fail without ever getting off the ground.

Fast forward a year and Havertz is on 12 goals this season at the same stage after finding the net against Ipswich.

It was a fitting end to the year for the 25-year-old, who has flourished into the player that Arsenal thought he could be.

A move to the team’s No9 at the start of the year sparked Havertz into life and his tally of 21 goals in 2024 is better than any other Arsenal player.

He was back in midfield on Friday, though, as Gabriel Jesus kept his place up front following five goals in two games last week.

Havertz showed the benefit of playing him as a No8, pushing up the pitch and being in the right place at the right time to poke home Leandro Trossard’s cross.

Calafiori faces Lewis-Skelly fight for left-back spot

Arteta had six players available to him on Friday who could play at left-back, and yet it was Myles Lewis-Skelly that he picked.

The teenager has started the last three league games in a row and, on the basis of this latest showing, there is no reason to he think that he shouldn’t make it four.

Lewis-Skelly has looked so comfortable in Arsenal’s defence, both on the ball and defensively, too.

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said it best last week when working on Sky Sports during Arsenal’s win at Crystal Palace, but Lewis-Skelly simply doesn’t look or play like an 18-year-old.

He completed 90 minutes here too, which felt like a milestone for the youngster given that Arsenal were seeing out a 1-0 win.

Riccardo Calafiori will no doubt assume the role of Arsenal’s first-choice left-back once fully fit, but Lewis-Skelly is out to make it so he doesn’t have it all his own way.