TRANSFER TARGET LIVE: Kai Havertz sends clear Arsenal striker message to Benjamin Sesko as Mikel Arteta plots transfer

Kai Havertz’s two goal contributions for Arsenal in Europe on Wednesday night reminded Mikel Arteta why Benjamin Sesko’s route to North London will not be easy to take

Look under any social media post of a reasonable size covering the goals or assists that Havertz has logged in the past few days and without fail there will be a point of view that truly believes the club’s transfer strategy will have suddenly changed. The obsession for a brand new shiny toy trumps anything right in front of our own eyes sometimes.

Mikel Arteta was minded to remind me very much that looking beyond the surface of Havertz’s latest achievement is important. Kai Havertz has reached 14 goals in 30 matches this season, 22 games faster than he managed during the previous campaign.

A good stat, Arteta said so himself, but the Arsenal boss threw back at me my own question of ‘What does this show?’ Perhaps taken aback I returned with the very simplistic, ‘Well, it shows he’s improving.’

Arteta was quick to give me the correct response: “It shows the perspective against the reality sometimes, that’s what it shows.” What the Spaniard meant by this was that the perspective of Havertz has been something very different to what we are actually seeing on the pitch not just on Wednesday night but over the past 18-plus months.

Yes, his misses against both Newcastle United and Manchester United were gutting, and simply not to the level required of an Arsenal centre-forward. Certainly not worthy of the abuse he and his wife suffered which as a result saw a 17-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of ‘malicious communications’ in the aftermath of the matches.

He came back from this with a goal against Aston Villa, a strong finish after a fiercely hit cross from Leandro Trossard. Then against Dinamo Zagreb, he delicately touched the ball back to Declan Rice to slam in after less than three minutes.

His goal was strong, something perhaps archetypal from what we can expect from strikers operating under Arteta. A headed finish where he towered above the opposition defenders from a cross, not toward the byline, but instead curling into the six-yard box and not curling away from it.

But what about the potential for a player to come in and rival Havertz for that spot? Well, that word, ‘rival’ is important here because it is not a formality that even a player like Benjamin Sesko just starts for Arsenal were the club to invest a significant sum in him either this winter or in the summer.

It is what fans would expect to happen but we should know by now that this does not occur. Players earn their places from existing figures, especially in the middle of a season too.

Havertz is currently tracking towards a 20-plus goal season. There is however no doubt that even before Gabriel Jesus’ injury more was needed and where there are games that Havertz is not at the required level then having someone to come in and of course eventually supersede him will be imperative.

Sesko is that for me. A young player whose price tag is relatively similar to that of Havertz it appears, who has taken a step forward in challenge to Germany from Austria and has not slowed. In fact, he has shown more impressive numbers.

His consistent goalscoring means that RB Leipzig are in no way ready to let him go, especially as we have now heard from head coach Marco Rose who says the Slovenian international is not one he expects to leave. But this is football and we know money talks so if Arsenal want the player and pay the money, the likelihood is he does indeed make the switch.

What it means for Havertz though is not just to become a competitor for the centre-forward role but his skillset allows Arteta to utilise him in several different positions. Martin Odegaard for example has not had the strongest of campaigns following injury and illness but a lack of options and injuries to Ethan Nwaneri and the departures of Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira – the latter on loan – mean that Arteta was forced into using Leandro Trossard here.

Havertz could of course be an option here. He can also feature alongside Odegaard should Arteta want a greater attacking look to his midfield to threaten oppositions deploying those deep blocks.

What truly is a bugbear for me is this binary view of footballers in the modern age. Players are never thought of as just good, it’s either one end of the spectrum or the other – a star or terrible, the “goat” or the butt of the joke. This isn’t the reality and the quality of players is a spectrum.

Is Havertz an elite forward? No, I don’t think so although he has some very strong numbers to make an argument should he or any of his supporters and backers choose to.

But he is not putting up the numbers of some of Europe’s best club’s centre-forwards. Fans, rightly, would love Arsenal to have their Erling Haaland, Robert Lewandowski or Harry Kane (sorry, yes, let’s not lie to ourselves).

Now these players are rarely on the market and the closest to that perhaps not at a club of those players’ is Alexander Isak at Newcastle who, sadly would cost a fee that Arsenal are not paying realistically any time soon. Therefore the club have another pathway to the elite and that’s spotting it before it gets there and again that is where Sesko returns to the conversation so… go get him. But do not disregard Havertz and remember his importance as he has just nudged us once again on another European night.