Gary Neville says 24-year-old Arsenal player just hasn’t been good enough this season 

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Gary Neville has claimed that Kai Havertz simply ‘needs to do a lot more’ after an underwhelming start to life at Arsenal.

Neville has been speaking on his podcast and discussed Havertz’s performance at St James’ Park on Saturday evening.

Arsenal fell to their first defeat of the Premier League campaign yesterday as they suffered a 1-0 loss at Newcastle.

The Gunners were way below their usual best in what was a scrappy 90 minutes in Tyneside while there has been plenty of fallout after Anthony Gordon’s winning goal.

Despite the controversy surrounding the winner, Arsenal struggled on the day and failed to break down a resilient Newcastle side.

There were some underwhelming displays across the pitch but Neville feels Kai Havertz didn’t play too badly.

The 24-year-old picked up a yellow card in the first half after a strong challenge on Dan Burn, which he was fortunate to not be shown red for.

Yet, Mikel Arteta stuck by the German and kept him on for the full 90 minutes as Arsenal searched for an elusive goal.

And while Neville was impressed with Havertz’s work off the ball, he feels the former Chelsea man needs to improve his work in the final third.

Neville says Havertz needs to a lot more for Arsenal

Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast, the Manchester United legend claimed he’d love to see Havertz provide more of an aerial threat inside the box for Arsenal.

“It’s interesting when you talk about Havertz,” Neville said. “There was a graphic that came up that said he had the most pressures in the game – 23 pressures. 

“When he’s out of possession and even the challenge [on Burn] he makes down here, he runs with real force and purpose.

“I wish he ran with the same force and purpose into the box when Arsenal were in wide positions with Martinelli and Saka. I wish there was that real aggression and force in his runs to get into the box to be a goalscorer.”

“There’s a big expectation on him, he’s been bought for a big amount of money,” he added. “The Arsenal fans are questioning why they’ve spent that money on him, why haven’t they got somebody else? And I can see why – that pressure is not going to go away from him.

“He does need to do better, let’s be clear. He definitely needs to do better. But for me, he didn’t play badly today. I thought he would be taken off for the fact he was treading a fine line with his yellow card.

“But actually Mikel Arteta left him on, so for me that was a good thing. But I think Arteta left him on thinking ‘go on, go and do it for me. I’m giving you a chance here’. But he doesn’t really either know how to get that goal when you need it or the runs to make.

“I think he needs coaching on the runs to make across the near post or into the back post and off that striker. He should be the second striker really, off [Eddie] Nketiah. He doesn’t really play like that.

“He never runs past the centre-forward, never dribbles past the centre-forward. He always plays the other side. I feel like can do a lot more and he needs to do a lot more for Arsenal.” 

Havertz has shown he can be a useful player for Arteta as he provides the Spaniard with a different type of option.

But after the Gunners spent £65 million to land him over the summer, they will be expecting him to provide more quality at some stage.

He provides a real physical presence for Arsenal off the ball and is often used as an outlet for Arteta’s men to bypass pressure from opponents.

Yet, he’s struggled to make an impact in the final third and Neville makes a great point that he lacks conviction in his attacking play.