Kai Havertz is in line to start for Arsenal against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final in Budapest on Saturday, a selection call that would put him back at the center of the club’s biggest night of the season. For Arsenal, it is the clearest answer to the question being asked today: is Arsenal playing today, and will Havertz be on the pitch when it matters most?
The final comes after Arsenal won their first Premier League title since 2004, but this is a different stage entirely. Havertz has been preferred to Viktor Gyökeres in recent games against City and Burnley, and his return to the starting picture matters because Arsenal have leaned on him again after months of uncertainty over his fitness.
That uncertainty began on the first day of the season against Manchester United, when Havertz sustained a knee injury that kept him out for almost five months. He returned in January after two surgeries and weeks in a knee brace, later saying, “I was in a bad place when I was injured.” The forward has also said, “Everyone told me from January how there is so much to play,” and Saturday gives him the biggest stage of all.
The contrast with five years ago is hard to miss. Havertz scored the winner for Chelsea in the 2021 Champions League final against Manchester City in Porto, a night he said, “It is something I will never forget” and “I will always be proud of it.” Arsenal paid £65m to sign him from Chelsea two years after that final, and they are now trusting him again in another European title match.
There is still one unanswered piece before kickoff: the lineup is not officially locked in. But if the expected XI holds, Havertz will start another Champions League final with Arsenal again trying to beat the odds, and again asking him to shape the biggest result of the season.
