EMIRATES STADIUM — If Arsenal do go on to clinch a first Premier League title in two decades they well may look back at Kai Havertz’s 86th minute winner against Brentford as one of the most decisive moments in their season.
Arsenal have had the luxury of cruising through second halves of late. They led 4-0 at half-time at the London Stadium; 3-0 after 47 minutes at Turf Moor; 3-0 at home to Newcastle after 65 minutes and 4-0 by 69; 5-0 before the break at Bramall Lane. This was a different story, more in keeping with their first half of 2023-24.
Declan Rice gave them an early lead but this time the floodgates remained firmly shut. Arsenal were in control of the game but lacked control of the scoreline. Perhaps if Aaron Ramsdale’s right foot had connected with the ball a split second before Yoane Wissa successfully closed him down to score, this would have been another procession.
Instead, Brentford’s equaliser in first half added time gave them a point to defend and a combination of dogged determination and devilish dark arts from the Bees ensured a niggly, narky second half. Havertz’s winner came at the point when Arsenal supporters’ anger and agitation met angst.
The Premier League season is a marathon and Arsenal are in a foot race with Manchester City and Liverpool for the gold medal; dropped points at home to an out-of-form bottom-half team would have left the Gunners in danger of running the final leg uphill with their shoelaces untied.
That it was Havertz who kept the red winning machine rolling on is less surprising now than it would have been a month ago.
As recently as February’s 6-0 win over West Ham – a match in which he played the full 90 minutes without scoring or providing an assist – Havertz’s role in this team still seemed uncertain. He was the new kid still trying to work out the in-jokes.
But the past four weeks have been transformative for Havertz’s Arsenal career. He has more goal involvements (six: four goals, two assists) in his last four Premier League appearances than he managed in his previous 32 games for Arsenal and Chelsea combined.
The Emirates stadium announcer promoted Waka, Waka, Shakira’s timeless World Cup anthem and the soundtrack to Arsenal fans’ song for Havertz – “£60m down the drain, Kai Havertz scores again”- to first in their Spotify queue at the final whistle. Thousands of triumphant fans responded by serenading their surprise superstar.
“If somebody had told me after the first two or three months that the whole stadium would be singing his song with that passion I would have found it hard to believe,” a beaming Arteta said afterwards. “That’s what happens to good people.”
Thomas Frank was unsurprisingly less pleased with Havertz’s night’s work. “I actually don’t think Havertz should have been on the pitch when he scored the goal,” he told Sky Sports. “For me, it was a clear dive for the penalty shout. If you see that slowly back it is clear. Maybe, maybe it’s difficult for the ref, but the linesman should have seen it clearly.”
He had a valid point. Tottenham midfielder Yves Bissouma was given a second yellow for a dive during a game at Luton in October and Havertz was hugely fortunate to not suffer a similar fate.
Arsenal won’t be unduly bothered by any of that. Havertz stepped up and provided a big moment on a day when Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard were stifled and Gabriel Martinelli was missing through injury. Titles are won by squads, not individuals, and Arsenal’s unsung hero quota is rising.
Ben White is another who made a decisive impact. The 26-year-old is far less talked about than William Saliba or Gabriel Magalhaes but he has been a mainstay of Arteta’s starting line-up since joining for £50m from Brighton, missing only six of a possible 107 Premier League games in that period.
Since being shifted across to accommodate Saliba at the start of last season, White has often looked like a centre back playing at right back: solid defensively and tidy on the ball but a limited threat in the final third. Suddenly he’s looking like a natural.
He scored at Sheffield United on Monday and set up both of Arsenal’s goals on Saturday with two different types of crosses from the right wing.
The first was flat and whipped in at pace requiring a glancing touch to reach the goal which Declan Rice duly provided to score his third goal in his last five games.
The second was stood up for Havertz to attack with power, an invitation the German accepted eagerly. In a little over an hour, White doubled his assist tally for the season.
Nobody in the Emirates was more relieved to see Havertz’s header fly into the top corner than Ramsdale, whose error on his first league start since November looked set to be the turning point of the match and the talking point on Match of the Day.
It was a bad mistake of the type that a goalkeeper starting regularly would be less inclined to make. Credit where it’s due he recovered to make two superb saves on the stretch when the scores were level, first to deny an opportunistic and brilliant Ivan Toney half-volley from 40-yards and then a Nathan Collins header from much closer in.
Arteta made a point of embracing him in front of the fans after the final whistle, recognising that of all the people in the stadium Ramsdale was the one who needed a cuddle the most. It has been a disheartening period for a keeper named in last season’s PFA Team of the Year, but overcoming that nightmarish moment to make crucial stops may also prove to be significant by 19 May.
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