Mikel Arteta believes it is imperative that Arsenal keep Kai Havertz fit following the forward's recent struggles with injury.

Havertz made his first appearance since the opening day of the Premier League season during Arsenal's FA Cup win over Portsmouth on Sunday after he suffered a knee injury against Manchester United in August.

The Germany international was also sidelined for a large part of the 2024-25 campaign with a hamstring injury, which saw him miss their Champions League matches against Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.

Havertz will now be hoping to make an impact against his former club, Chelsea, in the EFL Cup semi-final, with Arsenal travelling to Stamford Bridge for the first leg on Wednesday.

Arteta was delighted to see Havertz return to action on the weekend, but is wary about giving the forward too many minutes too soon.

"We missed him a lot. A year is a long time in football, but the way he's come back, he looks really fit, really confident," said Arteta on Havertz.

"He's such an intelligent player that straight away he's someone who connects with the players really naturally. 

"You can tell how much they love him as well, because every time he was in or around the box, everyone was jumping off their seats on the bench. 

"We are so happy to have him. He's going to help us so much. Now we have to keep him fit.

"We have to manage his minutes, but he had a good block of 20, 25 minutes the other day. He trained really well today again, and now it's a case of building his robustness and making sure he's available for every game."

Arsenal have been eliminated from their last four semi-final ties in all competitions, their longest ever run of final four eliminations in their history (2020-21 Europa League, 2021-22 EFL Cup, 2024-25 EFL Cup, 2024-25 Champions League).

This is the third time Chelsea and Arsenal have met in the EFL Cup semi-final, with the Blues progressing in 1997-98 and Arsenal going through in 2017-18.

It is the fourth fixture to have been played at least three times in the semi-finals of the competition (Arsenal v Tottenham, Chelsea v Tottenham and Manchester City v Man Utd all on four).