Arsenal come into the 2024/25 Premier League campaign looking to better their previous two seasons of 2nd place medals, with a title, missing out last season by two points on the final day.
Despite Kai Havertz having a good overall debut season for the Gunners, the question remains, can he score enough goals to fire Arsenal to the Premier League title over Manchester City?
Havertz made 51 appearances for Arsenal last season in all competitions, scoring 14 goals, providing seven assists, and totaling 3,827 minutes in their Premier League runner-up campaign.
According to a report from Repubblica, via Arena Napoli, Arsenal are ahead of league rivals Chelsea in pursuit of Napoli’s wantaway striker, Victor Osimhen.
Other strikers who have been linked to the Gunners this summer, are Ivan Toney and Viktor Gyokeres, but the Nigerian international – who has a release clause of £110m, could be the one they move for towards the back end of the window.
Osimhen made 32 appearances in all competitions for Napoli last season, scoring 17 goals, providing four assists, and totaling 2,476 minutes played.
Dubbed an aerial “monster” by Ben Mattinson, the main allure of the Nigerian striker is his aerial threat and box prowess. The 6ft 1 striker is extremely athletically gifted, possessing a huge leap and a powerful running style.
Whilst Havertz can impose himself on a game, using his 6 foot 3 frame, it’s different, as he looks to bump players in a more calculated fashion, and uses his body to win fouls, as opposed to bullying defenders with pure power, in the same way as Osimhen.
| Osimhen vs Havertz comparison | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stats (per 90 mins) | Osimhen | Havertz |
| Goals | 0.62 | 0.33 |
| Assists | 0.11 | 0.17 |
| xG | 0.65 | 0.35 |
| Progressive Carries | 1.59 | 1.70 |
| Progressive Passes | 0.96 | 3.14 |
| Shots Total | 3.69 | 2.15 |
| Shots on Target | 1.53 | 0.83 |
| Goals/shot | 0.14 | 0.14 |
| Shot-Creating Actions | 2.47 | 3.19 |
| Touches (Att Pen) | 6.83 | 5.55 |
| Aerials Won | 1.81 | 3.35 |
| Stats taken from FBref | ||
Now, the first thing to point out is the ‘Aerials Won’ metric, as despite calling Osimhen the aerial threat, Havertz actually wins more aerial duels than the Nigerian, winning 3.35 per 90, in comparison to Osimhen’s 1.81.
As previously mentioned, the way these two impose themselves on games is different, Havertz often dropping deeper to link play, and win aerial duels all over the pitch, increasing his aerials won numbers, due to the way he looks to utilise his height.
Osimhen, on the other hand, is a box striker, who wants to bully his defender and impose himself in the penalty area, looking to use his height and leap to attack balls into the box, and have the decisive touch.
Havertz seemingly offers more of an all-round game, averaging more assists per 90, more progressive carries and passes per 90, and producing more shot-creating actions per 90, whereas Osimhen looks to affect the game in and around the box.
This is shown by Osimhen’s 6.83 penalty area touches per 90, and the way he wants to affect the game is shown by his shot volume metrics, taking 3.69 shots per 90, and managing 1.53 of those on target per 90.
Whilst Havertz is clearly an important piece for Arsenal, a clinical box striker could be exactly what the Gunners need to fire them to a Premier League title, which is why the Nigerian ace could displace him as the starting centre-forward – leaving the German to compete for a midfield role.
