Burnwinter Fans were worried because he didn't score a goal in his first eleven league appearances or something. His work rate and attitude were widely acknowledged throughout, but his confidence was clearly low. If he didn't score for ten matches straight now, the mood could well be pretty downbeat all over again.
On top of that, people were happy with the Community shield performance. What they weren't happy with is when the season started we shifted so many pieces around which led to people worrying about how that would pan out. Partey to RB, White to RCB, Saliba to LCB, Gabriel to the bench, Rice to DM, Havertz to AM and Nketiah at CF.
Shifting Havertz from CF where he did well against City, and pulling him back into midfield where his low confidence resulted in him constantly passing backwards and fearing losing the ball. This coupled with Nketiah/Jesus up top resulted in the team looking bereft of attacking ideas for a while.
Not really a surprise he started playing much better when he was shifted back to CF around the end of the 2023/start of 2024. Off the ball he was always great but on the ball, that confidence you see in him now makes all the difference in how he chooses to take the ball, dribble his man and look up for attacking opportunities.
At times last year early on his confidence was so low you could see him visibly trying not to make a mistake on the ball and putting himself in positions where he wouldn't be at risk of exposing himself to the chance of missing a shot or forward pass.