Kai Havertz reacts to Arsenal debut and says he has no regrets over Chelsea move

Kai Havertz has reacted to pulling on an Arsenal shirt for the first time in Thursday’s friendly draw with Nurnberg while he says he has no regrets over joining Chelsea three years ago.

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The Gunners kicked off their pre-season campaign with a 1-1 draw in Germany, with Bukayo Saka scoring after just seven minutes before a calamitous goal credited to Kanji Okunuki levelled the scores in the second half.

Havertz, a £65million signing, was introduced at the interval and gave a rather underwhelming debut, though he was thrilled to step out in an Arsenal shirt for the first time and says it will take a little while for him to adapt to his new side’s style of play.

Asked how it felt to make his debut, Havertz replied: ‘I’m very happy – for me it’s a very big club and now to play here is of course a dream and I’m happy to be part of this group.

‘I’ve been here for four days and I feel already very welcome so I’m happy to be with the boys.

‘It’ll take maybe some days and weeks to get used to the style of play, that is clear.

‘But I’m going to give everything for the club – especially in the next weeks – to get the fitness back into my body and hopefully perform in the highest level in the league.’

On his decision to join the Gunners, he continued: ‘It’s a young group and when I watched them last year from the outside it was fun to watch them, and I felt the energy behind the club. It’s great to be here and hopefully we’re going to have a good time and achieve a lot of things.

‘From the outside it always looked like a big family and I always felt the energy whenever I played against them.

‘For me, it was always so tough to play against them because you felt the togetherness of the players, and now to be in there I felt very welcome from the first second. I’ve been here for a couple of days and I already feel part of the group.’

Although Havertz won the Champions League during his time with Chelsea, some may view his three-year stay as a failure – particularly in light of the clubs who wanted to sign him back in 2020 – but the 24-year-old doesn’t see it that way.

He said: ‘Of course you know it was not the best season for Chelsea last year. I have to say I am always going to be thankful for the club, always going to be thankful for the fans as well.

‘I had a very, very nice three years. Sometimes from the outside maybe it doesn’t look like this, but it was 100% the right step to go there three years ago.

‘But now I’ve completed this move and now my full focus is on Arsenal and I’m going to give everything for the club to hopefully achieve something big.’

MORE : Mikel Arteta discusses Kai Havertz’s role at Arsenal and addresses Martin Odegaard injury

MORE : West Ham fuming with Arsenal over delay in confirming Declan Rice transfer

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