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When Kai Havertz thinks back to the 2021 Champions League final, he can’t help smiling. Chelsea’s surprise victory over Manchester City in Porto still feels like yesterday for the Germany striker.
“It is something I will never forget,” he says. “As a kid I could have never dreamed I would score a goal in the final and win that game. I will always be proud of it. I just try to take that feeling and hopefully it will happen again.”
Havertz is looking ahead to Arsenal’s final against Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest on Saturday, when not many give them a chance of winning. It was the same when Chelsea, managed by Thomas Tuchel, took on a formidable City assembled by Pep Guardiola that had won the Premier League by 12 points. Chelsea had finished fourth, a further seven points adrift.
“We were the underdogs on that day, for sure,” Havertz says. “We hadn’t had the best season. But now it is completely different.”
Arsenal arrive having won their first Premier League since 2004 and Havertz, who as part of the celebrations posted a selfie with Win, the brown labrador who resides at the training ground, is in line to start. He has been preferred to the £64m summer signing Viktor Gyökeres in recent games against City and Burnley and is relishing the prospect of playing in European club football’s showpiece match for the second time.
“There is just so much history with it,” he says. “So many big players played in it, and to be there, to compete to win the trophy, is amazing. I remember as a child I watched all the games – and just to watch that final is something very special. So to play in it is unreal.
“You need to get there, and then you still have to make that step and win it. It is going to be hard, but we are going to be well prepared.”
Many observers were surprised when Arsenal paid £65m to sign Havertz from Chelsea two years after his Champions League final heroics. But he finished as top scorer last season despite missing its last three months with a hamstring injury and hopes to repay Mikel Arteta’s faith on the biggest stage.
“He was the one who brought me to the club and he taught me so much stuff on the pitch – and off the pitch as well,” he says. “I am very thankful for that time, how he helped me a lot when I had difficult moments. That is also very important.
“It is nice that we also got him a little gift [the Premier League title] back now. He brought the club back to where it belongs.”
Havertz missed almost five months after sustaining a knee injury on this season’s opening day against Manchester United, returning in January. The 26-year‑old was initially expected to be out for weeks, but ended up having two surgeries and spent weeks in a knee brace.
“I was in a bad place when I was injured. You are just inside a building. You cannot go out, you cannot walk, you do nothing. But all the players and staff helped me believe in myself and to get back to my best.
“Everyone told me from January how there is so much to play. That is where my momentum also shifted and I am just happy that I am here again now. I try to help the team every day. I tried that also when I was injured, just to help them off the pitch. That is always important.”
Havertz’s goals at Bayer Leverkusen, his former club, in the Champions League’s last 16 and at Sporting in the quarter-final were crucial, as was his first Premier League goal at the Emirates for more than a year in the win against Burnley that teed up the following night’s title win. He also scored in April’s defeat at the Etihad Stadium.
Havertz singled out Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final loss to City rather than that subsequent defeat as the turning point in their season. “It was a moment where we felt we could do so much better and there was so much more in this team and everyone needed to lift their spirits,” he said.
“There was the international break after and we just said to ourselves that we need to come back stronger. From that moment things changed a bit and we were more successful. That was a big moment. You are always frustrated when you lose finals, so to come back from it and win the league like this is great.”
It ensures confidence is high before facing PSG. Havertz says: “We have been fighting on the highest level for a couple of years now and we have finally won the Premier League. That gives us a big boost. It doesn’t matter if you are an underdog or whatever. We are going to go on the pitch and are going to beat them.”
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