Havertz’s late goal just minutes before full-time is worth its weight in gold for Arsenal, who with a win on Saturday night will climb to the top of the table ahead of Sunday’s big clash between Liverpool and Manchester City. If the two title rivals draw, Arsenal retain the lead.
But Viaplay expert Pål André Helland believes the Arsenal hero should have been sent off long before he decided the match.
– I believe, and there may be some who agree with me, that Havertz should have been expelled, says Helland.
He points out that the German already had a yellow card when he went down after just over an hour of play on Saturday night. The Viaplay expert is aware that Havertz filmed in the aforementioned situation.
– Then I think the judge should see it. He has a great angle and a great view. Then he becomes a coward. There had been some situations against Arsenal in the past where they wanted penalties. But this is simply filming. He tries to engineer a penalty kick. It should be yellow and he should be sent off. The referee should see it, be tough enough to give a yellow card, says Helland.
Others were of the same opinion. Brentford player Vitaly Janelt, who was interviewed by Sky Sports, said the following after the match:
– Kai Havertz already had a yellow card. For me, it’s clear filming. Yellow and red, says Janelt about his German compatriot.
Brentford manager Thomas Frank had the following verdict:
– It is very clear that Havertz should have had his second yellow, thus a red card and not have the opportunity to score the decisive goal. Then we would have played 11 against 10 and that would have given us an even greater chance of winning, he says at his press conference after the match.
The significance of the 2–1 victory was not to be misunderstood for Arsenal anyway. Manager Mikel Arteta marched straight to the fans and cheered madly right after the referee blew the match off.
For now, it smells like gold from Arteta’s men.
They are on the books with eight straight league wins. According to the statistics service choose is the fourth time a Premier League team has won their first eight games in a calendar year. The previous three teams have all won the league titleManchester United did it in 2009. Liverpool did it in 2020. Manchester City did it in 2021. the same year…
In this period, they have also scored an incredible 33 goals. That gives an average of 4.1 goals per game.
And match-winner Havertz showed why Arteta is betting on him as a striker: the German has now scored in four straight Premier League games.
Havertz was criticized for his first months at the club.
– If someone had told me, after the first two or three months, that the whole stadium would sing his name with such passion, I would have had a hard time believing it. But that’s what happens to good people, says manager Arteta at the press conference after the match.
However, it seemed for a long time that a goalkeeping mistake would stop the winning streak.
Admittedly, the home team had taken a commanding lead through Declan Rice after just under twenty minutes. But just before the break, Arsenal last chance Aaron Ramsdale had an intervention he is unlikely to forget anytime soon.
It’s hard to say if it was because he was rusty after being relegated to the bench for much of the season.
Ramsdale have not played a Premier League game since November.
On Saturday, however, he got a rare chance because the London club’s preferred last chance David Raya is on loan from Brentford and not available to play in tonight’s match.
Shortly before the referee was to send the teams to the dressing room, Ramsdale spent far too long on a comeback.
Yoane Wissa had long since smelled the opportunity, ran as hard as he could and blocked Ramsdale’s attempt to clear the ball away. He managed that.
“What on earth is he thinking,” wrote Sky Sports, while the BBC described it as a “terrible mistake”.
The ball went into the goal. The Arsenal players could not believe what they were seeing.
– He did what he did because he has a great personality and great courage. Mistakes are part of football. It’s about how you react to it and he did it in an incredible way. I’m not surprised. We really wanted to win for him, says Arteta.
Because the Ramsdale error was not decisive in the end.
Even though Brentford had their chances, one of which was a huge one, there was consistently enormous pressure on the away team’s goal.
In turn, Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard, Martin Ødegaard, Rice and Gabriel missed the small and big opportunities they got.
Until Havertz got the chance four minutes before full time and sent the Emirates Stadium into the sky.
– Huge win for us. These points were so important and you could see that in the second half. We didn’t play our best, but it’s better to win this way,” Havertz told Sky Sports.