Kai Havertz was Arsenal’s hero as the Gunners defeated a resilient Brentford side, propelling themselves to the top of the Premier League table.
Mikel Arteta’s side had observed Liverpool and Manchester City sharing the spoils in their earlier game and knew they had to win to secure the top spot in the Premier League table, which they did.
It was not an easy game by any means, as Brentford showed why they are one of the toughest clubs to beat in the Premier League. Arsenal thought they had scored the opener in the first half when Leandro Trossard found the back of the net, but it was ruled out for offside by VAR.
In the second half, Brentford aimed to press for a victory and sensed they could win. However, Arsenal was still in pursuit of that elusive goal and had Oleksandr Zinchenko to thank for a goal-line clearance.
It appeared as though Brentford would escape with a point, but Mikel Arteta shuffled his team and brought on the highly criticized Kai Havertz as a substitute late in the game. The German would emerge as the hero of the day, heading home the game’s only goal in the 88th minute.
He couldn’t have chosen a better time to score his second goal for the Gunners and silence his critics, for now anyway.
Arsenal will need to step up their game in future but the points are in the bag and Arsenal are top and that is all that counts.