Arsenal has been enjoying a remarkable streak of success lately. Sitting at the top of the Premier League as well as the Champions League table, the team has made its supporters proud. However, in their last game, Kai Havertz surely brought back some nostalgic feelings for the supporters.
Recently, the Gunners absolutely demolished French club RC Lens in their match in the group stages of the Champions League. Mikel Arteta’s men successfully retained the leading position at the table in the most convincing way. With a 6-0 result, the Gunners bagged the biggest victory by an English team over a French side in the competition’s history. However, Kai Havertz’s post-match Twitter post grabbed all the headlines, and fans seem to love it.
Kai Havertz opened the scoring on Wednesday night before Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Odegaard, and Jorginho swept in with strikes of their own. Havertz took to social media to celebrate the team’s progress and his goal against RC Lens.
On X.com, previously known as Twitter, Havertz posted a photo of his celebration and captioned: “Into the UCL knockouts!! Great week, let’s keep it rolling”. However, it was the hashtags he used that fueled the discussions. In his post, he used the hashtags “#COYG” and “#YaGunnersYa“.
Although #COYG is a commonly used term which is an abbreviation for the phrase ” Come On You Gunners”, it is the latter hashtag that caused the stir. It is a really nostalgic phrase for the Arsenal fans as this is the iconic hashtag that was frequently used by the legendary Arsenal midfielder Mesut Özil. Özil coined the “Ya, Gunners, Ya” phrase during a celebration of Arsenal’s FA Cup win.
Mesut Özil joined Arsenal from Real Madrid in 2013 for €47M. He was widely considered among the best playmakers in the world at the tiem and quickly established himself as a key component in the Gunner’s midfield. Mesut Özil was one of the most beloved players among the Arsenal supporters. With his midfield control, the playmaker secured a statistic of 44 goals and 79 assists in 254 games he played in the red shirt.
However, Özil’s time at Arsenal was cut short because of political divergences with the team. Him openly speaking out about the plight of the Uighur Muslim population in China was not seen in good eyes within the club. He was also seen publicly clashing with the club on multiple occasions.
Moreover, his then coach Unai Emery also complained about poor attitude issues from the German midfielder. His game performances also started to quickly deteriorate. All these factors weighed in for Mikel Arteta to remove him from the official squad list for 2020-21. Later the club was forced to sell their star midfielder to the Turkish club Fenerbahçe SK in that season.
Despite all these, the German midfielder holds a special place in all of Gunner’s heart. Under Arsene Wenger, the World Cup winner assisted the North London team to three FA Cups and was named the club’s player of the season in 2015-16 as they finished second in the Premier League. Arsenal won the FA Cup in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2020 seasons with Özil contributing significantly to the team’s success. He also was a part of Arsenal’s English Super Cup-winning team in 2015 and 2016.
Havertz’s post definitely triggered the nostalgia for Özil among the Gunners. They have taken to Twitter to share their ecstatic feeling for the attacking midfielder.
” King Kai,” wrote an X.com user under his post. ‘Brings a tear to my eye’, one added. ‘Omggg he did the Ozil #YaGunnersYa’, penned another fan in excitement.
Kai Havertz has had a rather difficult start to his life at Arsenal. Gunners fans have been sceptical of Havertz since his £65million move from Chelsea. Being criticized for his wayward passing and his finishing, it seems that he has finally found his feet at the club. Havertz has scored in the last couple of games for Arsenal and is looking increasingly confident in his performances. The fans would be hoping that this performance can kick start a promising career in North London.
Havertz’s performance for the Reds till now has been rather average. The 24-year-old has participated in 21 matches for the Gunners while scoring three times, and providing one assist.
It’s evident that Havertz would have to significantly elevate his performance in order to replicate Özil’s career achievements in both club and international jerseys. However, there have been clear improvements in Havertz’s contribution showing promising developments based on his recent displays. With backing from his coach and gradually winning over the fans, Havertz’s trajectory is becoming increasingly exciting.
Now can Kai Havertz continue his run of form and become the next Mesut Ozil for Arsenal? Or will he be merely seen as just another player with unfulfilled potential? Havertz would undoubtedly wish for the former one.
