Arteta says Havertz will make Arsenal ‘much better’ after forward returns to starting 11 in win over Kairat Almaty | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta is backing Kai Havertz to make a big difference to his Arsenal side in the second half of the season after scoring in the Champions League win over Kairat Almaty.

Havertz started for the first time this season and scored his side’s second goal as the Gunners made it eight wins from eight in the league stage of the Champions League.

“That’s very positive,” Arteta said on Havertz. “Getting Riccy (Calafiori) back as well after the injury, bringing in Kai. Not only bringing him in, I think the quality he showed. The way he connected with the team, the goal that he scored, the assist that he made in the first half. A really positive performance.

“The good thing is that he’s fit, he’s available, and he’s going to give us so much.

“It’s going to give him a lot of confidence, joy, energy, and to the team as well because the team knows how important Kai is for us and how he can help the team to be much better and take the team to a different level.

“The fact he was able to do that today after such a long time is very impressive so now we make sure we use him in the right way because he’s going to be very important.”

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The Germany international suffered a serious knee injury in August which kept him out until January.

But Arteta says he is now ready for a bigger role, having had his return to the team carefully managed.

“That’s what we planned, for 45 minutes,” Arteta said on the decision to take him off at the break.

“We wanted to start him as well so he could do all the process before in the best possible way and from now on, we have to make the decision about whether he starts or not in the next competitions.”