Havertz header edges Arsenal closer to title
Kai Havertz celebrates scoring Arsenal's first goal against Burnley during the Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium. Picture: John Walton/PA
Kai Havertz headed home his first goal of the season and Arsenal’s Premier League record 24th set-piece goal of the season to move them within one match and three points of winning the league championship for the first time since 2004.
They could, should and deserved to win by more, but end-of-season games when the ultimate prize is on the line are rarely straightforward or one-sided.
Win at Palace on Sunday, and they have done it. If second-placed Manchester City fail to win at Bournemouth on Tuesday and they will go to Selhurst Park as champions.
Neutrals struggling to understand just why Arsenal fans were so highly strung ahead of a home match they needed to win against one of the worst teams in the history of the Premier League should have a quick read of a telling passage from Nick Hornby’s autobiographical ode to the club he supported winning the title after a similar gap in glory way back in 1989.
Trying to explain to his exasperated girlfriend why his every waking thought was consumed by Arsenal and their end-of-season run-in, he explained: "I can recall nothing else that I have coveted for two decades (what else is there that can reasonably be coveted for that long?), nor can I recall anything else that I have desired as both man and boy.”
And that is why the tension was palpable from start to finish, when the celebrations and release of emotion was chilling.
Amazing, really, for what is supposed to be a bit of entertaining distraction from the stress and drudgery of trying to make a living and ‘real life problems.’ Something only diehard, long-suffering sports fans, football fans can really understand, maybe Talking of suffering, match-winner Havertz has spent most of the season sidelined by injury and was a surprise starter on the night. So, imagine the joy on his face when he headed in a Bukayo Saka cross from a 37th minute corner.
The Germany international is a proven big-game player, having scored a Champions League final winner for Chelsea before switching clubs to move to north London three summers ago.
One goal is all some players need to be a lifelong hero. If this one does the job for Arsenal this season, then he can write his name in the history books here, too.
Aside from that, Leandro Trossard hit a post and there were a few near misses here and there but one-nil to the Arsenal has been in this club's DNA since that class of ’89 restored Arsenal to the top of the English game. Some say it dates back to the Seventies and before , but this was all about the class of ’26 and their unique story.
Burnley had come to frustrate, as is their right, time wasting from the off and doing all they could to unsettle a naturally nervous Arsenal team and fan base. They were well represented by their fans too, filling the away section despite the unkind change of dates for this fixture from the weekend to a late Monday night with little or no public transport to get them back to the north after the match.
Their players, already relegated and with only one win in the last six months, were making their presence known, winning an early corner and putting themselves about for every loose ball and sometimes having all 11 players in their own penalty area, frustrating Arsenal’s efforts to find a way through. The only surprise was that it took referee Paul Tierney nearly half an hour to book a Burnley player as forward Hannibal Mejbri was shown a yellow card for stopping Gabriel starting a break with a freekick.
And as news of Pep Guardiola’s departure from Manchester City began to circulate around the press box it was impossible not to note Burnley right-back Kyle Walker. For so long a stalwart of the Catalan coach’s dominant reign in the north west, he was straining every sinew to organise a Burnley defence playing in a sky blue kit that made them look like his former City side without necessarily playing like them.
A potentially title-deciding decision by Tierney and his VAR crew then denied Bukayo Saka what looked like a clear penalty as he was felled from behind by Lucas Pires just as he looked set to convert a low cross.
Undeterred, captain Martin Odegaard drove his team to stay focused and won a corner with a smart low right-foot shot. Saka dusted himself down to swing in the corner from the right and Havertz rose jet-heeled to head in from a great height at the near post.
With the result all that mattered, this match was never about entertainment or professional niceties.
‘Set piece again’ rang out around the terraces, between choruses of ‘one-nil to the Arsenal’ and ’60 million down the drain, Kai Havertz scores again.’ One goal was not enough to deter Burnley, however, and Mike Jackson’s men had the better of the play and chances at the start of the second half. A bouncing Ebere Eze volley against the crossbar lifted Arsenal again, and it was all Odegaard and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta could do to remind their team to keep pressing for a crucial second goal and not risk sitting on the lead.
Thankfully, for them, it was enough and made for memorable celebrations as the players and staff did a post-match lap of honour after speeches from their manager and captain.
Raya 7, Calafiori 6 (Hincapie 72), Gabriel 7, Saliba 7, Mosquera 6, Odegaard 7 (Zubimendi 90), Rice 6, Trossard 7 (Martinelli 90), Eze 7 (Lewis-Skelly 73), Saka 7, Havertz 7 (Gyokeres 73).
Weiss 7, Pires 6, Esteve 6 (Humphreys 82) , Tuanzebe 6, Walker 6, Ugochukwe 5 (Laurent 71), Florentino 6 (Ward-Prowse 78), Anthony 6, Mejbri 5 (Amdouni 70), , Tchaouna 5 (Bruun Larsen 82), Flemming. Subs: Dubravka, Hartman, Worrall, , Edwards.
Paul Tierney 4
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