LONDON: Mikel Arteta saluted “adorable” Kai Havertz after the German sent Arsenal to the top of the Premier League with the last-gasp goal that clinched a 1-0 win at Brentford on Saturday.
Havertz was a Champions League final hero for Chelsea in 2021, but he has endured a torrid time since crossing London to join Arsenal in the close-season.
The 24-year-old midfielder finally gave a glimpse of why Arteta splashed out £65 million ($80 million) to sign him when he headed home in the closing minutes.
Havertz’s second goal for Arsenal was his first in his last 10 appearances, moving his team one point clear of second placed Manchester City, who were held to a 1-1 draw by third placed Liverpool earlier in the day.
“That is the beautiful thing about life. When you have challenges and you have to overcome them, it makes these moments much better,” Arteta said.
“That is the reason the people reacted to him like that today. It is because he is adorable and he is a joy to work with. He fully deserves more than anybody to get that win.”
Arsenal’s third successive win in all competitions proved they have erased the bitter taste of their controversial VAR-aided defeat at Newcastle earlier in November.
Arteta’s men had already won at the Gtech Community Stadium in the League Cup in September and they left it late before making it another successful trip to west London.
“I love winning and we are top of the table. This is where we have to want to be,” Arteta said.
“When you have an opportunity to take a bite out of everybody you have to do it.
“I was really curious how the team was going to do. Winter has started, it was very cold and it is difficult coming to Brentford. I loved the way the team competed.”
With on-loan Arsenal keeper David Raya not eligible to play against his parent club, Aaron Ramsdale made his first league start since September 3.
Ramsdale’s father recently criticized Arteta’s handling of the Arsenal goalkeeping controversy, with the England international surprisingly losing his place to Raya despite recording the second most Premier League clean-sheets last season.
But Arteta’s faith in Raya received a boost when Ramsdale, his confidence clearly affected by his spell on the bench, almost gifted Brentford the lead with a horrendous mistake early in the first half.
Trying to play out from the six-yard box after Gabriel’s back-pass, Ramsdale panicked under pressure from Yoane Wissa.
Ramsdale missed his kick and the ball rolled to Bryan Mbeumo, whose shot was cleared off the line by Declan Rice before Wissa stabbed the rebound wide.
Arteta refused to be drawn on Ramsdale’s shaky performance, saying only: “I am really happy with the team and the way the team played and we kept the clean sheet.”
After a slow start from Arsenal, they finally showed signs of life when Trossard headed Oleksandr Zinchenko’s cross over before Gabriel nodded into the side-netting.
Arsenal thought they had taken the lead in the 42nd minute when Gabriel Jesus met Bukayo Saka’s cross with a header that was parried by Mark Flekken and Leandro Trossard nodded home from close-range.
But a VAR check decided Trossard was narrowly offside, giving Arteta another dose of frustration at the hands of the review system.
Brentford nearly made Arsenal pay for their lethargy as Neal Maupay’s header was brilliantly cleared off the line by the stretching Zinchenko before the French forward poked the rebound wastefully wide.
That proved a crucial moment as Havertz came off the bench to win it in the 89th minute.
Saka’s cross picked out Havertz’s run to the far post and the German guided his header past Flekken as Arteta jumped for joy on the touchline.
‘Adorable’ Havertz ends goal drought to fire Arsenal into top spot
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‘Adorable’ Havertz ends goal drought to fire Arsenal into top spot
- The 24-year-old midfielder finally gave a glimpse of why Arteta splashed out $80 million to sign him
- Havertz’s second goal for Arsenal was his first in his last 10 appearances
Isak fires Newcastle into Premier League top four, Moyes misery
- The striker is just the fourth different player to score in eight successive Premier League appearances
LONDON: Alexander Isak fired Newcastle into the Premier League’s top four on Wednesday, scoring twice in a 3-0 cruise against Wolves as David Moyes endured a miserable return to the Everton dugout.
Red-hot Isak found the net for the eighth league match in a row as the Magpies leapfrogged faltering Chelsea into fourth spot in the table.
The Swedish international put the home side ahead in the 34th minute when his shot took a huge deflection off Wolves defender Rayan Ait-Nouri, leaving Jose Sa wrong-footed.
The striker is just the fourth different player to score in eight successive Premier League appearances, after Jamie Vardy (twice for Leicester), Ruud van Nistelrooy (twice for Manchester United), and Daniel Sturridge (for Liverpool).
Isak doubled Newcastle’s lead shortly before the hour mark, controlling Bruno Guimaraes’ pass before firing home for his 15th league goal of the season and Anthony Gordon added a third.
Eddie Howe’s men, who have now won six straight league games, have recovered strongly from a lengthy poor spell to make a powerful case for a Champions League spot next season.
Taking advantage of the faltering form of Manchester City and Chelsea, they are just three points behind third-placed Nottingham Forest.
Moyes, in the first game of his second spell in charge of Everton, watched his toothless side lose 1-0 to Aston Villa at Goodison Park.
Ollie Watkins broke the deadlock in the 51st minute, slotting past England teammate Jordan Pickford after he was sent clear by Morgan Rogers.
Everton huffed and puffed but showed a lack of creativity — unsurprising for a team who have scored just 15 league goals in their 20 matches this season.
The result lifts Unai Emery’s Villa to seventh in the table but Everton remain in deep trouble, just one point above the relegation zone in 16th spot.
The Liverpool club’s new owners, the American-based Friedkin Group, sacked Sean Dyche last week and brought back 61-year-old Moyes, who enjoyed success during an 11-year stint at Goodison Park from 2002 to 2013.
But the Toffees, ever-present in the top flight since 1954, have battled relegation for the past three seasons and are once again in deep trouble.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Leicester suffered their sixth straight league defeat, losing 2-0 to Crystal Palace to leave the Foxes second from bottom of the table.
Jean-Philippe Mateta put the visitors ahead early in the second half and Marc Guehi made the points safe with a late second.
Arsenal, winless in three matches in all competitions, are hosting injury-hit Tottenham in the late kick-off on Wednesday.
Police probe abuse of Havertz’s wife after Arsenal star’s woes
- Havertz missed a penalty in Arsenal’s shootout defeat against Manchester United in the FA Cup
- The Germany international’s wife, Sophia, reposted two abusive messages she had received on Instagramhavertz
LONDON: Police have launched an investigation into social media abuse aimed at Arsenal forward Kai Havertz’s wife after his latest poor performance.
Havertz missed a penalty in Arsenal’s shootout defeat against Manchester United in the FA Cup third round on Sunday.
Following Arsenal’s second successive loss, the Germany international’s wife, Sophia, reposted two abusive messages she had received on Instagram.
A police spokesman told Britain’s Press Association: “Officers have received a report of malicious communications toward a Hertfordshire resident on Sunday 12 January. Enquiries are under way.”
Speaking on Tuesday, on the eve of Arsenal’s Premier League match against Tottenham, Gunners manager Mikel Arteta flagged the “terrible consequences” of online abuse.
“It’s something that we really have to eradicate from the game, because it’s so cynical as well,” he said.
Havertz has scored 12 goals in 27 matches for Arsenal this season.
But his woeful finishing in the United game and the preceeding 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle in the League Cup semifinal first leg has reopened criticism of the German.
Havertz, who scored the Champions League final winner for Chelsea in 2021, has endured an erratic spell with Arsenal since moving across London in 2023.
But Arteta said there is no excuse for the abuse, saying: “We can accept it and say ‘that’s our job’, but there are certain limits and the line has to be drawn. It cannot happen. That’s it.”
Lyon dumped out of French cup by fifth-tier Bourgoin-Jallieu
- The hometown hero was Mehdi Moujetzky
BOURGOIN-JALLIEU, France: Seven-time French champions Lyon were sent crashing out of the French Cup when they were beaten 4-2 on penalties by fifth-tier Bourgoin-Jallieu in their last-32 tie on Wednesday.
The hometown hero was Mehdi Moujetzky, who scored both goals for Bourgoin-Jallieu in normal time as the game ended 2-2.
He put his side ahead after 20 minutes and scored his second in the 69th to level the scores after Nemanja Matic and Georges Mikautadze appeared to have put Lyon, who are sixth in Ligue 1, en route for the last 16.
Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette and Corentin Tolisso both missed penalties in the shoot-out to send Bourgoin-Jallieu through.
There was another upset when Ligue 2 side Troyes beat Ligue 1’s Rennes 1-0.
BBC’s Match of the Day unveils new hosts to replace Lineker
- Kelly Cates, Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman will share presenting duties on the iconic show
- Cates, Dalglish’s 49-year-old daughter, is part of Sky Sports’ presenting team and will continue in that job alongside her new Match of the Day role
LONDON: Match of the Day, the BBC’s flagship Premier League highlights program, has unveiled three new hosts to replace Gary Lineker, including the daughter of Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish.
Kelly Cates, Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman will share presenting duties on the iconic show, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, when current host Lineker steps down at the end of this season.
Cates, Dalglish’s 49-year-old daughter, is part of Sky Sports’ presenting team and will continue in that job alongside her new Match of the Day role.
“Once I sit in that chair and the theme music starts, I just know that’s going to be a really incredible moment,” she said.
“I’ve worked with a lot of the pundits before and they’re all fantastic, so I’m just looking forward to getting started.”
Former Tottenham, Barcelona and England striker Lineker is the BBC’s highest-paid presenter, earning £1.35 million ($1.65 million) a year, and has been the face of Match of the Day for 26 years.
Lineker, 64, will remain on the BBC’s coverage of the FA Cup next season and is also set to present shows during the 2026 World Cup.
In August 2016, Lineker made good on a promise to present Match of the Day in his underpants after his boyhood club Leicester won the Premier League.
But he was briefly taken off air by bosses in Match 2023 after comparing the language used to launch a British government asylum policy to the rhetoric of Nazi-era Germany on social media.
In solidarity with Lineker, a number of fellow presenters and pundits including Alan Shearer and Ian Wright refused to appear on the program.
An episode was reduced to 20 minutes and aired without its host, pundits and commentary before Lineker was reinstated just over a week later.
“Gary has done a phenomenal job at Match of the Day for the last 26 years, he’ll be missed greatly and we all still get to enjoy him on our screens across some of football’s greatest tournaments,” the BBC’s director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski said.
Match of the Day, which was first broadcast in 1964, averages around four million viewers each week during the Premier League season.
For decades, the show with the memorable theme tune was a Saturday night institution, but audiences have dropped significantly from its peak in the 1970s and 1980s.
Man City and Chelsea both draw in Premier League after late goals
- City conceded in the 82nd minute and again two minutes into stoppage time in a 2-2 draw
MANCHESTER: Manchester City showed more fallibility in squandering a two-goal lead to draw at Brentford in the Premier League on Tuesday as Chelsea's slump deepened despite a last-gasp equalizer.
City conceded in the 82nd minute and again two minutes into stoppage time in a 2-2 draw after Phil Foden scored twice for the struggling champions, who are battling to simply qualify for the Champions League this season.
Chelsea salvaged a 2-2 draw at home to Bournemouth thanks to Reece James' free kick in the fifth minute of stoppage time but saw their winless run in the league extend to five games.
West Ham beat Fulham 3-2 for a first win under new manager Graham Potter.
First-place Liverpool were playing third-place Nottingham Forest in the late game.
