Arsenal's match winner Kai Havertz was full of praise for teammates Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard after their 1-0 win over Brentford, revealing his goal came from a training ground routine.
Havertz came off the bench to score the winning goal after Leandro Trossard's goal in the first-half was ruled out for offside by VAR. As a result, Arsenal had to wait until the 89th minute to break the deadlock, courtesy of a Havertz header at the back post.
It was fellow substitute Saka who provided the assist, swinging in a brilliant cross towards the back post after being teed up by Odegaard. Havertz then made an excellent run, getting to the ball ahead of Saman Ghoddos and heading it home.
The goal earned Arsenal all three points and sent them top of the table, with the Gunners now one point ahead of defending champions Manchester City. Reflecting on his winning goal, Havertz told TNT Sports after the game: "It feels amazing.
"We've been working hard for these moments and today I got it paid back and I'm just happy to repay the team with that. It was a brilliant goal and a brilliant pass as well. We've trained this routine quite a lot in training, so I know that Bukayo or Martin love to play that ball so it was a good goal.
"Football is always hard work, nothing comes from itself and you have to work and keep belief. It was tough for me the last couple of months, but I tried to put my ego aside because the team is the important thing."And Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was delighted with Havertz's impact, with the 24-year-old scoring just his second goal for the club since making a £65m move from Chelsea over the summer.
"You saw how much it meant to everyone, they love him," Arteta told TNT Sports. "Today, we believed he could change the game with the way they were defending and he did so that's what big players do.
"We are so happy, I think we fully deserved to win the game. I thought we played extraordinarily well, we had some big moments, we should've scored much earlier than that but it's a tough place to come to, they never make it easy.
"But we showed a lot of resilience, a lot if belief, a lot of patience when we needed it and it's a big win. I'm so happy with the way the team performed, I'm really happy with the clean sheet. I think the team was exceptional."Kai Havertz singles out two Arsenal team-mates for praise after dramatic late winner
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