Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes that the improving Kai Havertz is beginning to feel more "secure" after scoring his fourth goal in seven games against Brighton & Hove Albion in Sunday's 2-0 Premier League win.
Arteta and the Gunners hierarchy came under intense scrutiny for forking out £65m on Havertz over the summer, as the Germany international had been a hit-and-miss player during his time at Chelsea.
Havertz initially struggled to adapt to his newfound role as a left-sided midfielder in Arteta's system and faced swathes of criticism from Gooners and rival fans, but he has begun to blossom in North London.
After Gabriel Jesus had made the breakthrough against Brighton, Havertz latched onto Eddie Nketiah's through ball and coolly lifted the ball over the onrushing Bart Verbruggen to put the game to bed in the 87th minute.
Havertz's insurance goal marked his fifth in all tournaments for Arsenal and his fourth in seven matches, having also netted against Luton Town, PSV Eindhoven and Brentford over the past few weeks, and Arteta can see the German's confidence growing in the capital.
"His confidence is growing and he feels more secure on the field. The fact he's scored one helped to score the second one," Arteta told reporters in his post-match press conference.
"It's four in seven games now and he should have scored a header today as well in a really good position. But overall, his performances, the intelligence he shows on the pitch, the aggression, how he works defensively, it's top. Really good."
Prior to Jesus's deadlock-breaking header, Arsenal endured 45 minutes of frustration against Brighton, who offered little in the final third but got to half time with their clean sheet intact thanks to the Gunners' lack of cutting edge.
Arteta's men fired no fewer than 16 shots in the first half to no avail, as Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard all squandered promising openings, evoking memories of Arsenal's similar wastefulness in last weekend's loss to Aston Villa.
Arteta conceded that he was 'concerned' about his side's failure to draw first blood at half time, but he waxed lyrical about his side's "maturity" as they overcame a difficult week of illness to make their second-half pressure pay.
Referencing May's abysmal 3-0 home loss to Brighton, Arteta said: "I think we had a really good first half last season as well. We should have scored one or two goals but we didn't. That was my concern today at half time as well.
"But [last season] when we conceded the first goal, the team went down because we didn't have that belief. Today we showed a real determination to beat them from the beginning until the end - and we have managed to do it.
"We had to be patient but at the same time, we had to be really determined against this team. Maybe [you can] have certain doubts - they start to open you up, they start to frustrate you and dominate with the ball. We didn't allow that to happen today. We showed a lot of maturity and a lot of intelligence.
"This game against them required [us] to be really intelligent in certain areas. We've done that in a really good way. Regarding [illness] we have some issues in the camp. With Jorginho as well, we have another issue, so we have five or six now. We need players."
Thanks to Liverpool's goalless draw with Manchester United in the late kickoff, Arsenal end the weekend one point clear of the Reds at the top of the rankings ahead of next Saturday's mouthwatering top-of-the-table showdown at Anfield. body check tags ::
