Havertz compared to ex-Arsenal star that Arteta clashed with and ruthlessly axed
Arsenal legend Paul Merson has compared Kai Havertz to Mesut Ozil - a player Mikel Arteta had a tough working relationship with.
Havertz, 24, joined the Gunners from Chelsea in a £65million deal during the summer transfer window but failed to score in his first five games for his new employers. He missed a golden chance during Arsenal's 3-1 win against Manchester United on Sunday.
Some Arsenal supporters are calling for Havertz to be dropped after his tricky start under Arteta, but Merson believes he'll become a superstar in time. The Sky Sports pundit has stuck his neck on the line to back the German, insisting "cream rises to the top".
Yet that comparison with Ozil will worry Gunners fans after Arteta failed to get the best out of the 2014 World Cup winner. Ozil was axed from the first-team squad within months of Arteta's appointment and made a bitter dig at the Spaniard on social media.
Arteta believes Havertz will win over Arsenal fans if he's 'persistent' and works hard. Merson also thinks the versatile star, who scored the winner in the 2021 Champions League final, will come good. "I feel for Kai Havertz," Merson told Sky Sports.
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"He’s playing in a position where it’s not easy. He hasn’t played very well. Mikel Arteta will stick with him. He’s low on confidence but Arsenal have won three and drawn one. You’ve paid that money and put yourself out there to go and get him.
"The cream rises to the top. I’m a big fan but I did say when he got signed, he has got that look of Mesut Ozil about him. That’s the problem. If it isn’t going well, he doesn’t look too interested. That’s not the case - it just comes across like that."
Mesut Ozil and Mikel Arteta failed to get on (Getty Images)Do you agree with Paul Merson? Let us know in the comments below!
Yet Arteta famously clashed with Ozil. Arteta was appointed by Arsenal in December 2019, with Ozil initially part of his plans. Yet he never played again for the Gunners following the Covid pandemic, despite being the club's highest earner.
Arteta axed Ozil from his Premier League and Europa League squads, and he didn't play first-team football again until he joined Fenerbahce in January 2021. "I just ask for fair treatment like with any other player," Ozil's agent Dr Erkut Sogut told Mirror Football.
"But to not be in the squad at all, that was a couple of days before the window was closing and it was too late for us to react anyway... that was not expected by us at all. The coach didn't want him in the squad and the player has to accept that, what can you do?"
The tension between Arteta and Ozil was evident after Arsenal were thumped 5-0 by Manchester City in August 2021. Ozil tweeted "trust the process" after the game, mimicking a catchphrase Arteta often used during his first year or so in charge of Arsenal.
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