Kai Havertz and his move to Chelsea was arguably the most hyped-up transfer saga of the summer, eventually signing on the dotted line on the 4th September for £72 million in a five-year deal. The 21-year-old was one of European football’s most promising talents, scoring 46 times in 150 appearances for Bayer Leverkusen.
Blues fans were treated to Havertz’s debut in the season opener against Brighton and Hove Albion and, despite some injury and fitness concerns, have already seen enough talismanic quality from the young German to be reassured there is still a potential world-class talent waiting in their wings.
Here’s your full lowdown on just how Kai Havertz is quickly and quietly becoming one of the Premier League’s next biggest sensations.
The Alleskönner
Thanks to their Galatico-esque summer transfer window, Chelsea have become one of the most popular teams for betting on soccer and Kai Havertz is arguably the most high profile of these additions. Known as an Alleskönner in his homeland, aka. a player who can do everything, he has mainly been deployed as a number ten in Frank Lampard’s 4-2-3-1 formation, Havertz has some of the best balance, vision, creativity and passing skills in the English top flight.
According to Understat.com, Havertz has played 561 minutes in the Premier League, netting once and providing one assist. That naturally doesn’t include his appearances in the Champions League or Carabao Cup, where Havertz has already bagged himself a hat-trick against Barnsley.
Over the course of his final season with Bayer Leverkusen in 2019/20, Havertz played 2,467 minutes over 30 Bundesliga matches and managed to bag 12 goals and 6 assists. He averaged 2.15 Shots per Ninety Minutes and a whopping 2.12 Key Passes Per Match, placing him firmly at the top table of European football’s most creative players.
For the Blues this season, Havertz’s haul drops slightly to 0.96 Shots Per Ninety and 1.28 Key Passes Per Game. Only Hakim Ziyech, Tammy Abraham, Ben Chilwell, Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi average a higher amount of Key Passes per match, however, only Abraham, Mount and Chilwell have been able to really muster up a decent run together in the team, showcasing that there is still plenty of room for reassurance that Havertz is well on his way to becoming one of Chelsea’s top performers.
Comparisons To The Rest Of The League
Creativity and all of the attributes that branch off of that is surely what a player like Kai Havertz will be judged most on from both Blues fans and the wider football world come the end of the season, so how does his 2.12 Key Passes per game hold up against some of his competitors up and down the league?
Ross Barkley, arguably the player Kai Havertz replaced at Stamford Bridge, is currently averaging 3.00 Key Passes, which you can expect to see drop substantially once Aston Villa’s freak start to the season comes to an end and they stop knocking seven goals past reigning League champions.
Leicester City, currently top of the Premier League table, only have one of their players above 2.00 Key Passes a game and that man is Kelechi Iheanacho who has only played 103 minutes in 3 appearances so far.
Much has been made of Spurs’ frontline over the course of the opening Premier League games, however Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Gareth Bale are all only on 2.26, 2.33 and 2.46 Key Passes respectively.
Given that these are two sides currently flying in the league, the fact that Havertz is only marginally behind them should give Chelsea fans plenty of reasons to think there is still so much more to come from the 21-year-old German.
