Kai Havertz injury: Could Arsenal formation change help Mikel Arteta manage attacking crisis?

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta should consider a formation change in the wake of Kai Havertz's season-ending injury, expert Charles Watts has told Sports Mole.

The Germany international has been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign with the hamstring tear he suffered during the Gunners' Dubai training camp, further crippling Arsenal's already decimated frontline.

ACL victim Gabriel Jesus will not play again this season either, while Bukayo Saka is several weeks away from returning from his own hamstring operation, and Gabriel Martinelli's less severe issue will still take a few weeks to heal fully.

While Havertz has been lambasted in recent weeks for alarming wastefulness in front of goal, 15 goals in all tournaments still makes him Arsenal's highest scorer by far, and his devastating blow is the "absolute worst case scenario" for the Gunners, Watts believes.

"It's just a massive blow," Watts said. "There's no other way of dressing it up. He's top scorer for all the criticism, 15 in 34 games. It's not a bad strike rate for any striker and it's not just that, it's what he brings to the team. It's his work rate, it's his work ethic, how he holds the ball up, playing that central striking role that no one else can do.

"To lose him without any sort of backup option, it's impossible to dress it up any other way than just being an absolute hammer blow to Arsenal's hopes for the remainder of the season. It was crushing news when David Ornstein reported it.

Havertz injury is "worst case scenario" for Arsenal

"The news had sort of filtered out the day before. There'd been one video doing the rounds from a fan in Dubai who had watched in the training session and the video emerged of him limping off the pitch with the medical staff and really, really struggling to walk, which didn't look great at all.

"Martinelli, when he got his injury at Newcastle, he was able to walk off the pitch pretty well and even that was a month out. But seeing Havertz barely be able to put any sort of weight on his leg, it didn't look great. And then obviously David breaking the news, everyone feared that it was going to be a season ender. It's the absolute worst case scenario for Arsenal."

Arsenal have now lost two critical attackers to hamstring injuries less than two weeks after the closure of the January transfer window, where they opted against splashing the cash on a new attacker in favour of going all out for a new centre-forward this summer.

However, that gamble has now proven to be a highly ill-advised decision from the powers-that-be, and unless Arsenal sign a free agent - which Arteta has refused to rule out - they will be left with just one out-and-out centre-forward in the shape of Nathan Butler-Oyedeji.

The 22-year-old is highly inexperienced at the top level, though, so Leandro Trossard is expected to lead the line with support from Raheem Sterling and Ethan Nwaneri until Martinelli returns, but some wild card solutions have been suggested.

Midfielder Mikel Merino and centre-backs Gabriel Magalhaes and Riccardo Calafiori have been touted as potential emergency options, but Watts has warned that such a bold strategy would immediately backfire, and only the former should be considered for the striker's slot in the second half of matches.

Could Merino up front be the answer?

"Mikel said it the other day, at some point they're going to have to try something new," he added. "I've seen some of the wildcard suggestions like Calafiori up front. Or Gabriel, he's such a threat in the box.

"That all sounds well and good, but in reality, you do that, it will look very obvious that you've got a centre back playing up front. I don't see that as a viable option.

"Merino, maybe in the last 25 minutes, I don't really see it as an option from the start. He's not bad at arriving in the box late and scoring goals. But when you're playing as a striker, you're not going to be arriving late because you're already going to be in the box, or you should be anyway. It's a very different game being the number nine than it is being a midfielder who arrives late and tries to get to the back post."

While the three-time Premier League winners are ravaged up front, they have few issues in midfield and indeed defence, where Ben White's expected return against Leicester City would leave Takehiro Tomiyasu as their only injury concern at the back.

Arteta's Arsenal have grown accustomed to the 4-3-3 shape over the past couple of seasons, but the Gunners boss also toyed with a three-man defence during his earlier days, and such a system memorably propelled the club to FA Cup glory in 2020.

As sticking with the 4-3-3 would force Arteta to start all of his senior options up front, Watts has implored the Spaniard to consider a change to a more defence-heavy setup to alleviate the load on Trossard, Nwaneri and Sterling.

Why Arsenal should consider 5-3-2 formation

"To be honest, I think they really should be thinking about a formation change as well," Watts added. "I do look at a 5-3-2 type thing. Calafiori, Saliba and Gabriel as the centre backs. You've got the wing back options in Tierney. Ben White's coming back. Timber can play there. You've got options there in Lewis Skelly on the left side as well.

"Then you can have Rice and Partey holding, you can have Odegaard almost playing as a 10 behind them. Two forwards, Trossard and Nwaneri. And then at least you've got a forward option on the bench then, you're not starting with all three of them.

"At first, I was a bit against it because they're so used to the 4-3-3 and that would be really disruptive in season. But now that Havertz is gone, I'm just looking at him thinking it's really quite an appealing option that could work. He's going to have to think outside the box now. Absolutely has to.

"I don't think he can just do tried and tested 4-3-3 every single game for 90 minutes. I think there's going to have to be changes to accommodate allowing players a game off or starting on the bench. And I do look at that option of a change of formation as being quite an appealing one."

Having just two men up top as opposed to three could be an enforced measure against Chelsea on March 16, where Sterling will be ineligible to face his parent club, leaving Nwaneri and Trossard as Arsenal's only two senior attackers if Martinelli is not back by then.

The Gunners go into the weekend seven points behind Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table, but victory at the King Power will see them reduce the deficit down to four before the Reds tackle Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.

Press play on the video above to listen to the full discussion, as Watts also laments Arsenal's failure to sign one particular attacking target in the January transfer window.

Written by

Ben Knapton