Kai Havertz showed just why Chelsea spent £71.6 million on him by scoring a hat-trick in the Blues’ 6-0 win over Barnsley on Wednesday.The 21-year-old was the star of the show as Chelsea booked their place in the fourth round of the EFL Cup.Havertz’s transfer fee brings with a lot of scrutiny but more performances like this will quickly turn him into a hit.Of course, there are more difficult challenges to come. Barnsley are 20th in the Championship, after all.But Havertz can only perform against what he’s up against and he looked great on Wednesday evening.
It wasn’t just the three goals that made Havertz the man of the match. His work rate was excellent, helping set up Ross Barkley’s goal by applying pressure to a Barnsley defender."I'm very happy to score my first hat-trick here at Chelsea, I'm very happy about the win and happy about my three goals and I hope we can continue like that," Havertz said after the match, per Chelsea's Twitter account.
His manager, Frank Lampard, was also delighted.
"It was a great exercise for him, another game to see how we want to work off the ball, but also have freedom on the ball and combinations with Tammy [Abraham]," Lampard reflected, per the Mirror.
"It's the first of many great nights for him."
Havertz's individual highlights
Chelsea fans will hope that it's a sign of things to come.
Havertz's individual highlights from the 6-0 win have now emerged and he was faultless.
The youngster display some neat touches and confidence on the ball, as he shone in the No.10 position.
With that performance under his belt, Havertz can now kick on and show why Chelsea spent £71.6m to sign him.
Chelsea faced a competition to sign Havertz, with Real Madrid and Bayern Munich among the interested parties.
But the Blues were able to get him thanks to help from his Germany teammates, Timo Werner and Antonio Rudiger.
"When I found out from the media that Chelsea were in for him, of course I immediately made the idea of a change palatable to him," Werner told cfbayern.com.
"Since I’d been in his position a few weeks before him, I was able to tell Kai what kind of plan the manager had for both of us if he decided to join.
"I'm sure that agent Toni did his own job on Kai too!"
Lampard has already tried to use Havertz's versatility, playing him on the right on his debut against Brighton and then centrally against Liverpool and Barnsley.
But the Chelsea boss believes his position will become clear once the attacking midfielder is fully fit.
“I have my own ideas about him where I see him, but I think the main point at the minute for Kai is getting him fit,” Lampard said, per West London Sport.
“Kai has played in various positions through his career. He has played as a number eight and as a number 10 and he has played a lot on the right-hand side for Bayer Leverkusen last year.
“He has come here to be a huge talent for this team and we just need to get him fit and ready and then I think the position will be very clear.”