The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- Judith Benjamin
Kai Havertz has hit back at critics after the Arsenal signing was lambasted online for his performance in an MLS All-Star challenge.
In the early hours of Tuesday, Havertz became the first person in the short history of the event to never score a single point in the cross-then-volley challenge.
As a result of both his poor form and the struggles Folarin Balogun had, Arsenal lost in that particular event and Havertz received a number of complaints from fans.
However, it was the former Chelsea forward who had the last laugh after he scored in Arsenal’s 5-0 victory over the MLS All-Stars later that day.
The German leathered the ball home from close range before taking to social media and firing back at critics from his All-Star challenge performance.
Kai Havertz hit back at critics, via a post on Twitter, after scoring for Arsenal in pre-season
After struggling in the skills competition, Havertz bagged his first Arsenal goal in their clash with the MLS All-Stars
Taking to Twitter, Havertz bluntly wrote: ‘Hav that’ with a ‘bullseye’ and ‘yawning’ emoji accompanying a picture of him scoring in the match.
Havertz then followed that Tweet with another message that read: ‘But in all seriousness.. Really nice feeling to get my first @arsenal goal! Thank you to the fans for the amazing support this week!’
Not only was it Havertz’s first goal in an Arsenal uniform – on his debut no less – but it was also the fifth goal for the Gunners in a rout of the MLS All-Star Team.
Prior to Havertz’s effort, Arsenal found the back of the net via strikes from Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, Jorginho and Gabriel Martinelli in North Carolina.
Elsewhere in the match, former West Ham midfielder Declan Rice came on to make his debut for Mikel Arteta’s side in the pre-season clash.
Rice, who completed a British transfer record move to Arsenal earlier this month, played 35 minutes of the match with the MLS All-Stars.
Ex-Ajax star Jurrien Timber also featured for the Gunners during the clash.
The German forward did not score a single point in this part of the skills challenge Tuesday
The Gunners are also interested interested in Ajax’s £40million-rated midfielder Mohammed Kudus but are focusing on trimming Mikel Arteta’s squad before adding to their £200m recruitment spree.
Arsenal sporting director Edu will now turn his attentions to outgoings with Kieran Tierney, Cedric Soares, Nicolas Pepe, Albert Lokonga, Nuno Tavares and Rob Holding among those attracting interest that could tempt Arsenal in selling.
But while the current focus is offloading players, Arsenal are not ruling out further arrivals this summer with Ghana international Kudus among the players interesting the Gunners.
Kudus is also of interest to Brighton this summer, but the attraction of playing Champions League and playing in a team hopeful of challenging for the Premier League title next season could emerge as a factor for the Ajax player.
