Arsenal traded Haaland & Kane hybrid for £4 million, and now he’s outscoring Havertz.

Let’s think back to January 2024. Arsenal were in a rut, and it was a run of form that would most likely cost them the league title.

With a run of only one goal in three games around the New Year, it was clear that a new striker was needed.

Ivan Toney was one option, but he came and left before signing contracts in Saudi Arabia over the summer. However, by that moment, signing a new centre-forward was no longer at the top of the priority list.

Benjamin Sesko, RB Leipzig’s sensation, was a target, but he signed a new contract in Germany and could be a future star.

For the time being, the Gunners are content with Kai Havertz, who has been nothing short of outstanding since taking over as the club’s number nine.

Kai Havertz’s season statistics thus far
Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard awarded Havertz a charity penalty away to Bournemouth this time last year.

It was late September, and Chelsea’s contentious £65 million signing had been anything but a success, with no goals to yet.

He opened his account that bright afternoon at Vitality Stadium and hasn’t looked back since. The German scored a late winner against Brentford, and since then, he has become a cult icon at Emirates Stadium.

Havertz is off to a flying start this season, with six goals in ten games. He’s also mimicking a fellow left-footer, Robin van Persie, by scoring in seven consecutive home games. Not that awful.

As a striker for Arsenal, he is among the greatest in the world, with 20 goal involvements in 20 games (12 goals and 8 assists), averaging one every 83 minutes.

The turnaround from a year ago is truly remarkable. The former Leverkusen star is currently among the first names on the squad roster. Isn’t football a weird old game sometimes?

Speaking of extraordinary rises, Mika Biereth has had an impressive year in front of goal. He is also outscoring Havertz…

How is Biereth performing after leaving Arsenal?
When Biereth signed for Arsenal as a teenager from Fulham in July 2021, there were high expectations for a youthful centre-forward who was a prolific striker at youth level.

It never happened for him, but he is finally receiving his bouquets in the senior game.

Last season, the 21-year-old played on loan for Motherwell in Scotland and Sturm Graz in Austria, scoring 15 goals in 37 matches.

He helped them win the league championship and scored goals in the Europa Conference League. It was a breakthrough year, but it wasn’t enough to get him back into the Arsenal first team.

Biereth on loan in 2023-24

Stat

Motherwell

Sturm Graz

Games

15

22

Goals

6

9

Assists

5

4

Minutes played

1,046

1,624

Statistics from Transfermarkt.

Edu and Co opted to sell while he was in form, just like Flo Balogun did a year earlier. Sturm Graz came knocking again and agreed to a £4 million transfer price. It’s peanuts for a team like Arsenal, but it’s good business for an academy product.

So, how has he fared since? The London-born striker, who qualifies for Denmark, has seven goals in nine league games, one more than the hot-shot Havertz. In all competitions, he has eight in 13 starts.

That record was boosted by a hat-trick over the weekend, when Biereth scored three goals in an astonishing 5-0 victory over RB Salzburg.

There is unlikely to be any sorrow on Arsenal’s part, but they have lost a unique talent here, someone who was characterized as a ‘Haaland-Kane hybrid’ last season in an interview with the Independent, a British newspaper.

Speaking with the publication, the striker admitted to having comparable components in his game.

“Just like Haaland, all I care about is scoring goals. If you offered me two touches of the ball and two goals, I would take it. All I care about is scoring goals. [But] there are different areas of the game when scoring goals is impossible when the ball is deep, so combining, linking the play, and holding the ball up, as Kane does. “Those are the two distinct variables on the pitch.”

He definitely rates himself, which is obviously positive, and it is this mindset that has propelled Biereth to new heights in Austria during the last ten months or so.

It would not be surprising.