It would have taken an ambitious betting man or woman to predict that is how Arsenal’s engine room would look next season, but it is very close to becoming a reality.
A Havertz-Rice-Odegaard partnership boasts attacking flair, technical quality and defensive nous, though they may struggle to match the physical output of certain rivals.
Interestingly, Havertz’s stats were better when he lined up in midfield for Chelsea, suggesting he could offer a great counterpoint to his team-mates – but how do the three players stack up to the likes of Man City, Man United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Newcastle’s trios?
Below, Mail Sport’s Max Mathews analyses the data and assesses how that triumvirate compares to midfield threes for the other top six sides ahead of next season – and whether they can lead the Gunners to the title.
How will Arsenal’s midfield work?
Arsenal are set to place Havertz on the left-hand side of an exciting, new-look midfield three next season, with Rice as the deep-lying No 6 and captain Odegaard on the other side as a No 8.
Odegaard, the only of the three who was at the club last campaign, will reprise the right-sided role he excelled in during the 2022-23 season.
Rice, meanwhile, will mainly play as the deepest and most central of the three, with both Odegaard and Havertz on either side of him.
That, too, will be a slight adaptation from his previous club, where he played as a double pivot next to Tomas Soucek in West Ham’s 4-2-3-1.
He very often had a partner in crime next to him helping to break up play and stifle the opposition’s midfield, but may be expected to do the bulk of the work alone if Havertz and Odegaard are marauding upfield.
Even for England, who largely play 4-3-3, he has defensive support from the likes of Jude Bellingham, Kalvin Phillips and Jordan Henderson.
Havertz is a demonic, frenzied and willing presser but his off-the-ball work and positioning in defensive terms will need a lot of practice and coaching. Luckily, that is something Arteta is clearly sure he can provide.
Havertz could be the key
Versatile attacker Havertz, 24, is perhaps best as a central-ish No 10 but largely played as a central striker for Chelsea – mainly due to their crisis of orthodox No 9s.
Despite this, Arteta evidently sees him – not more natural midfielder Rice – as the right replacement for vice-captain Granit Xhaka, who is expected to leave this summer as he enters the last year of his contract.
In the club’s official announcement, he said: ‘Kai is a player of top quality. He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield and variety to our play,’ laying bare his plans for him.
The Spaniard believes the gifted ball-carrier will thrive in their dynamic and fluid possession-based style, making darting late runs into the penalty area to get goals and assists and leaving space behind him for left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko to fill.
Arteta is understood to feel Havertz’s new role will suit his preferred 3-2-5 attacking shape, which is reminiscent of how he was at times used during his blistering spell at Bayer Leverkusen.
Back in 2021, the then-Chelsea man said: ‘More or less, I’m a midfield player but I like to go into the box.’ Arsenal will hope ‘Cobra Kai’ can strike teams from deep as Xhaka did last season, in by far the best goalscoring season of his whole career, with nine.
Of course, he can and will cover elsewhere – up front for Gabriel Jesus, as a right-sided No 8, perhaps as a wideman, in the same way Leandro Trossard can cover multiple positions – but this is how Arsenal envisage he will be used.
Plus, given that teams will be more and more likely to line up in a low block against them, Havertz’s off-the-ball movement will help break sides down, while his aerial ability will prove a valuable asset at set-pieces, which Arsenal excelled in last season.
After all, Havertz was labelled ‘Alleskonner’ during his time in Germany, roughly meaning ‘jack-of-all-trades’, because of his tactical understanding and positional versatility. He played in central midfield for former club Bayer Leverkusen and also played there on occasion for Chelsea in winter 2020.
Though it’s a very small sample size, Chelsea’s record in those games was generally positive: a 4-0 Champions League win away at Krasnodar, a 3-0 win at Burnley, a 4-0 win away at Sevilla, a 3-1 win against Leeds and a 2-1 defeat at Wolves – though he was substituted off before Pedro Neto’s late winner at Molineux.
What do the stats say?
Looking at statistics from last season offers some interesting insight – for example, showing Odegaard is excellent going forward.
Among midfielders who played at least 60 per cent of Premier League games last season, he ranks second for goals (15), third for expected assists (7.95), eighth for assists (seven) and fifth for key passes per game (2.08).
While via the same metric, Rice tops the league in terms of interceptions per game (1.70) and ball recoveries per game (9.03), demonstrating his anticipation and positioning. He also ranks ninth for passing accuracy, with 88 per cent.
Havertz, with his tricks, flicks, languid running style and graceful, elegant movement, has always been a player that transcends the cold, hard black-and-white of statistics.
You can’t, for example, really reduce a balletic turn or a beautifully weighted touch or movement that opens up space for a team-mate to score to just a number.
That said, he does rank highly for some stats. The Athletic point out that only City’s monstrous striker Erling Haaland made more off-the-ball runs into the opposition’s penalty area than Havertz in the league last campaign, with 349 to 334.
And only Tottenham’s Son Heung-min (1,093) made more off-ball runs than the 37-cap international (1,070) among all wingers and strikers.
And the data (see graphic above) shows he actually ranks higher for shots, key passes, successful dribbles per 90 minutes and goal conversion rate when playing in midfield for Chelsea.
Broadly, though, Havertz is a player of the intangibles. Arsenal see him as the one who will draw markers away and create space for others, someone who can create opportunities out of nothing, someone who can ‘make things happen’.
He could be the perfect foil alongside Odegaard’s creativity and Rice’s defensive ability, delivering a lovely balance to their midfield, though doubts remain over whether they could avoid being bullied by more physically dominant sides. They would lose some of that without Thomas Partey.
Manchester City
City’s fluidity and rotation under Pep Guardiola means it’s hard to nail down an exact preferred midfield trio, though we have gone with Rodri and John Stones (the usual double pivot in the 3-2-4-1 shape) and key man Kevin De Bruyne.
In fact, their win percentage with those three in the side is actually lower than when at least one of them is not starting – but, again, it is a small sample size and the data does not allow for when Stones played in defence.
They were more likely to concede, less likely to score and achieved fewer points per game with those three playing, yet City were less likely to lose games.
With all that said, this City three (though it’s rarely just three in midfield) possess so much quality it’s hard to say Arsenal’s beats theirs.
By the by, The Athletic add that in the 2022-23 season, Rice’s ‘true tackle’ win rate (tackles plus challenges lost plus fouls committed) was the highest in the league among central and defensive midfielders.
His rating of 69.9 per cent from 113 true tackles outstripped the brilliant Man City star Rodri’s, of 56.4 per cent from 117 true tackles.
Manchester United
United certainly stumbled across something good with Bruno Fernandes, Casemiro and Christian Eriksen in midfield.
With experienced Brazilian Casemiro at defensive mid, Eriksen dictating from deep and Fernandes doing Fernandes things, the Red Devils won 12, drew three and lost one of the 16 games all three started.
Average goals for were higher, average goals against much lower, and their win percentage was starkly different – 75 per cent with to 50 per cent without, 2.4 points per game compared to 1.6.
They have a proven balance, with fine technical ability – yet their physicality is lacking. Arsenal’s trio could outstrip them in future, given their respective ages, but for now United edge it.
Newcastle
Newcastle certainly have improved hugely since being taken over by the sports-washing Saudi Arabian owners.
The richest country in the world has invested millions upon millions into the desperately grateful Magpies, who have brought in brilliant Brazilian Bruno Guimaraes.
Italian Sandro Tonali, poised for a £52m move from AC Milan, would add class and composure to the trio, with Sean Longstaff, reborn midfielder Joelinton and former Arsenal player Joe Willock competing for the third slot.
Perhaps not yet out-and-out Champions League quality, though doubtless they’ll get there if they keep chucking untold quantities of money at it. Advantage Arsenal.
Liverpool
Liverpool’s oft-discussed travails in recent years has largely, and not wholly unfairly, been put down to their midfield struggles.
Their midfielders are generally not able to sustain the monstrous physical demands of manager Jurgen Klopp’s gegenpressing ethos, or are too young to dominate games, though Harvey Elliott and Stefan Bajcetic show real promise.
Fabinho will compete with 18-year-old Spaniard Bajcetic in defensive midfield, while the aging Henderson and injury-prone Thiago Alcantara will fight for the other No 8 slot alongside new signing Alexis Mac Allister.
We shall see how they fare – though it feels like they need another midfielder to really get back to Champions League level. Their outstanding goalkeeper Alisson, full-backs and wingers like Mo Salah could see them through to the top four, though.
And Trent Alexander-Arnold will probably reprise his midfield role from last season.
Tottenham
A small shout-out for Tottenham, whose midfield three could actually be quite exciting under new boss Ange Postecoglou.
A fluid 4-3-3 at Celtic was the heartbeat of his success and a trio of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg doing the dirty work, with James Maddison free to roam and create further forward, and the superb Rodrigo Bentancur in between, may well work nicely.
Still, though, their bitter rivals have a better midfield three, in my book.
Honourable mentions
Chelsea are likely to play with two in midfield, and only one midfielder seems guaranteed to be at Stamford Bridge next season, Enzo Fernandez. Moreover, they finished 12th last term. Improvement is expected but they could easily finish outside the European spaces again.
While Brighton did brilliantly to finish sixth, but perhaps overachieved and may well struggle to retain that success in the league alongside a Europa League campaign. Time will tell.
