It was a cruel irony that would surely not have escaped Mikel Arteta. Confirmation that Kai Havertz is expected to miss the rest of the season came 24 hours after Arsenal’s players returned from a warm-weather training camp in Dubai, with scans revealing the Germany striker had a torn hamstring.
Having flown to the United Arab Emirates last week in an attempt to refresh his weary squad, Arteta has lost a third senior attacker to the same injury, Havertz joining Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli – who could be out for a month after limping out of the defeat by Newcastle in the Carabao Cup semi-final – on the sidelines.
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Given the Arsenal manager’s disappointment that they were unable to bring in reinforcements in the January transfer window, he could be forgiven for wondering what else could possibly have gone wrong in a season he had hoped would prove to see his side coming of age.
Yet as Arteta comes to terms with having only three fit senior forwards – Leandro Trossard, Raheem Sterling and Ethan Nwaneri – available to face Leicester at the Emirates on Saturday, he must have contemplated whether he could have done things differently. It was interesting to note that neither of his two major summer signings, Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino, started the 5-1 thrashing of Manchester City in Arsenal’s most recent Premier League game, with Myles Lewis-Skelly excelling at left-back and Declan Rice thriving in the left midfield role. Although Calafiori and Merino have contributed on occasions, they have yet to establish themselves as first choices even as the injury list has mounted.
A few days before Arsenal confirmed the signing of Merino from Real Sociedad at the end of August, Arteta admitted he was concerned about the lack of depth in his squad. “We don’t have 23 outfield players and normally you have to be equipped like that,” he said. “We know we’re not going to get there. We have to trust some academy players and make sure that we look after the ones that we have to be robust and play a lot of minutes. So far looking good, I’m happy.”
He could not have foreseen the extent of Arsenal’s injuries, which began when Martin Ødegaard was ruled out for two months after returning from international duty in early September, but Arteta may be regretting the decision to allow Eddie Nketiah to join Crystal Palace three days after Merino’s arrival. He had already sanctioned the sale of Emile Smith Rowe, which combined with Nketiah’s departure brought in almost £60m for the two academy products, and allowed Reiss Nelson to join him at Fulham on loan. In what turned out to be Edu’s last signing before his surprise departure as sporting director in November, Arsenal ended the transfer window with a late loan swoop for Raheem Sterling, who was unwanted at Chelsea.
The out-of-sorts former England forward will get a chance to add to a paltry 216 Premier League minutes, Sterling having been substituted on all three of his starts. Arteta said last week that Sterling and Trossard were capable of playing through the middle and has earmarked Nwaneri as a future No 9 given the teenager’s ruthlessness in front of goal that has brought him seven goals in a breakthrough campaign.
It would speak volumes about where Arsenal find themselves if a side with ambitions of overhauling Liverpool and becoming champions for the first time since Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles in 2004 were to rely on a 17-year-old who is not allowed to change in the first-team dressing room under the Premier League’s safeguarding regulations.
The injuries to Havertz and Martinelli will increase the scrutiny on Arsenal’s decision to promote Edu’s deputy, Jason Ayto, to step into the breach. Despite the botched attempt to sign Ollie Watkins for about £40m, he is understood to remain in contention for the permanent role along with the club’s former midfielder Tomas Rosicky and several other candidates. Arteta said last week there could be news “relatively quickly”.
A summer move for RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko, who opted to remain in Germany despite Arsenal’s attempts to sign him last year, remains in the pipeline but that will not help their push for trophies this season. In the meantime, Arteta must conjure up a plan that could even include a role for Nathan Butler-Oyedeji, a 22-year-old academy product yet to score a league goal after loans at Accrington and Cheltenham.
He made his Arsenal debut in the Champions League against Dinamo Zagreb in January and has scored eight goals in 13 appearances for the under-21s this season. The winger Charles Sagoe Jr has returned from a loan with Shrewsbury and could be an option in a wide role having started in the Carabao Cup last season.
But as Arteta pointed out when his side surrendered a 2-0 lead at home to Aston Villa last month on the same day that Darwin Núñez came off the bench to score two late goals for Liverpool at Brentford, there are moments that can define a season and Arsenal’s may have passed.
