07/09/2026
Jamie Carragher after Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 yesterday:
"To displace Havertz out of this team, you're talking about one of the best players in the world. That's what you have to get. It has to be... it has to be an Ian Wright guaranteed 30 goals a season, Thierry Henry.
Gyökeres is never taking Havertz's place, ever! Morgan Rogers, I'm not sure as well. And it's not about how good they are just in attack; it's what they give you for the team.
So, the one of the reasons why you can't break Arsenal down as a team is how well they press from the front. But then when the opposition get through that, they all get behind the ball, and Havertz is about 25–30 yards from his goal.
You go and ask a world-class striker to do that. A guy who is obsessed with his numbers and his goals to come back and do that—he won't do that.
When you see Havertz, what he does in terms of both boxes and set-piece-wise as well... So, Havertz—and we were talking before the game, weren't we—about Havertz is more of a facilitator, he's not a great goalscorer. Can Saka or the wide players get more goals the way Salah and Mané used to with Bobby Firmino in that position? They're not both great goalscorers, but they bring an awful lot to the team.
And as I said, this idea that you're going to bring someone in who is like amazing, yes, I'm the one who said consistently they haven't got an absolute one of the best players in the world in the front four. But you better get someone at that level—at that unbelievable level—to take Havertz out of that team.
I'll tell you what, Mikel Arteta, the type of manager he is, taking Havertz out of that team and what he does for that team defensively... We talk about how strong they are defensively, no one can get a shot on target. It's not just the goalkeeper and the back four, that's the whole team!
So he'd be giving up actually some of his team's defensive solidity to add a little bit more in the attack, yeah? That's the decision every manager has to make—the give and take."