With a goal and an assist against Wolves, Kai Havertz has started the new season where he left off before the summer, and our friends from Opta have dug out some brilliant stats regarding his magnificent form.
The German striker was a sensation towards the back end of 2023/24, and after a productive Euro 2024 campaign and a strong pre-season, it took him only 25 minutes of the new campaign for his name to be written onto a scoresheet for the first time.
He followed that up with an assist for Bukayo Saka to seal the win, marking the fifth time in 2024 that he walked off the pitch at the end of a league game with a goal and an assist in his pocket - that’s more often than any other player in the big five European leagues this calendar year.
| Date | Opponent | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 24 | Newcastle United | 1 | 1 |
| Mar 4 | Sheffield United | 1 | 1 |
| Apr 6 | Brighton | 1 | 1 |
| Apr 28 | Tottenham Hotspur | 1 | 1 |
| Aug 17 | Wolves | 1 | 1 |
| Kai Havertz | 5 |
| Mohamed Salah | 4 |
| Kylian Mbappe | 4 |
| Iagao Aspas | 3 |
| Harry Kane | 3 |
| Yoane Wissa | 3 |
| Michael Olise | 3 |
| Deniz Undav | 3 |
In fact, Kai has become the first Arsenal player to score and assist in five different Premier League matches in a single calendar year since Robin van Persie in 2011, and is well on his way to breaking Thierry Henry’s record with over four months of the year still to play:
| Player | Year | Occasions |
|---|---|---|
| Thierry Henry | 2000 | 7 |
| Robin van Persie | 2011 | 6 |
| Kai Havertz | 2024 | 5 |
| Thierry Henry | 2004 | 5 |
| Thierry Henry | 2003 | 5 |
| Thierry Henry | 2002 | 5 |
Havertz is red-hot right now, and boasts an impressive 17 goal involvements in his last 15 Premier League outings, comprising of 10 goals and seven assists.
That is the first time in seven years that one of our players has managed to be so productive in attack during a 15-game spell, with only six players in our Premier League history managing better returns in the competition:
| Player | Goals & assists | Run ended |
|---|---|---|
| Thierry Henry | 23 | August 2003 |
| Robin van Persie | 21 | December 2011 |
| Dennis Bergkamp | 20 | March 1999 |
| Cesc Fabregas | 20 | October 2009 |
| Mesut Ozil | 18 | December 2015 |
| Alexis Sanchez | 18 | March 2017 |
Kai's purple patch began in our 5-0 success against Burnley on February 17, and since then, no player in the Premier League has managed to be so effective for his team in terms of goal involvements, with only Chelsea’s Cole Palmer keeping up with Kai:
| Goals & assists | Apps | |
|---|---|---|
| Kai Havertz | 17 | 15 |
| Cole Palmer | 17 | 14 |
| Jean-Philippe Mateta | 15 | 15 |
| Alexander Isak | 14 | 14 |
| Erling Haaland | 12 | 14 |
| Phil Foden | 12 | 13 |
| Yoane Wissa | 12 | 16 |
| Ollie Watkins | 11 | 14 |
| Nicolas Jackson | 10 | 15 |
| Bukayo Saka | 10 | 13 |
| Bruno Fernandes | 10 | 13 |
A perfectly timed header on Saturday also saw Kai edge a little closer to a slice of his nation’s Premier League history. That was his 33rd goal in competition during his time with us and Chelsea, lifting him to joint-second in the top-scoring Germans in the division’s history, pulling level with former Gunner Mesut Ozil.
He is still 11 goals shy of Ilkay Gundogan at the top of the list, but given his superb form in front of goal, you would bet on Kai catching the former Manchester City at some point this season.
| Player | Goals | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Ilkay Gundogan | 44 | 188 |
| Kai Havertz | 33 | 129 |
| Mesut Ozil | 33 | 184 |
| Pascal Gross | 30 | 228 |
| Uwe Rosler | 29 | 103 |
| Jurgen Klinsmann | 29 | 56 |
| Leroy Sane | 25 | 90 |
| Robert Huth | 21 | 322 |
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