Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Arsenal: Havertz on the spot to grab a late draw

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

Arsenal still have work to do to make the Champions League quarter-finals, but a late equaliser from Kai Havertz made next week’s second leg a little less complicated than it looked like it was going to be.

The team bore no real surprises. Gabriel Martinelli started on the left in the absence of Leandro Trossard, and up front Viktor Gyokeres started brightly. A smart turn on the edge of their box saw him hauled down by Robert Andrich, and the Leverkusen captain picked up a yellow card in the process. The same player quite cynically blocked off the Arsenal striker again just two minutes later, and was given what looked like a final warning from the ref. Could it have been a second yellow? Possibly, but I think the fact the two offences came so close together kind of saved his bacon.

We had lot of the ball early on, and they sat off in much the same way we see teams in the Premier League do it. Declan Rice rescued Gabriel after the lively Christian Kofane up front caught him in possession in our half, and our best moment came when David Raya claimed a cross then bowled it out for a good counter. Bukayo Saka found Jurrien Timber, he played it into the box, Eberechi Eze stepped over it, Gyokeres laid it off to Martinelli whose left footed shot cracked off the crossbar. Nice football, and a touch unlucky.

We couldn’t really build on that however. Leverkusen made it tough, and while they weren’t exactly peppering our goal, finished the half with 8 attempts on goal to our 3. We struggled to find any fluency in our attacking play, which is something of a feature of our game rather than a bug these days, and their back three – which so often became a line of 5 when the wing-backs dropped in – was hard to penetrate. In part because it’s well set-up and organised, but also because we lacked pace in our passing, and by the time the ball got to where we wanted it to go, they had time to reset. Again and again.

Then, straight away in the second half we found ourselves behind. We were caught out by the way they kicked off the second period, driving forward straight away, clearly something that frustrated Mikel Arteta as he revealed afterwards the players had been given notice of Leverkusen’s desire to do this. A cross came in, Raya made a very good save, but from the subsequent corner Andrich was alone at the back post to head home and make it 1-0. There was, perhaps, a small foul on Eze as he tried to close down the goal scorer, but I don’t think we can really complain about some scuffling for position and blocking off from corners.

Saka’s struggles on the right continued, he looked well below par, and Arteta had to change something, so the captain was replaced on the hour mark by Noni Madueke. It didn’t exactly transform our performance, which was borderline turgid at times, but he did provide some positive energy on the ball. We had moments in the final third we might have done better with, and not for the first time this season I saw Timber in positions where I’d love to see an attacking player rather than a right-back (with all due respect to him). It just feels counter-intuitive to have a defender in areas of the pitch you want a final third killer in.

That said, he did have a very good chance to score, heading a Martinelli cross over the bar from close range. I think that’s one he has to get on target at the very least. Then, with time running out, Madueke’s endeavour was rewarded with a penalty. He drove into the box, the defender slid in and there was contact in the process. He went down, the ref pointed to the spot, and I was convinced VAR would overturn it. My guess is that the fact the player went to ground is what ensured the on-field decision stood, because if they were both upright that level of contact would never be a penalty.

Having come on as a sub, Kai Havertz had the responsibility of taking it, and the context of that, against his former club, ramped up the pressure. He said:

The time between the penalty whistle and the penalty kick felt like an eternity, of course. But in the end, you have to be mentally present in those moments. I know the stadium well and have taken many penalties from this spot. That’s why I felt good. Another big task awaits us next week.

He made no mistake from the spot, a big moment for him back at Leverkusen and after all the injury problems he’s had, but a big moment for the team too. A 1-0 deficit would have been far from insurmountable, but clearly going into next Tuesday’s game the scoreline level is preferable. Particularly on a night when we really didn’t play very well.

Afterwards, Mikel Arteta was asked if this game was a reminder of how tough this competition can be at this stage:

Yes, and how difficult it is to win against any opponent in the competition and especially away from home. There is a big factor there. We’re fully aware of that, we knew the importance of the game and the difficulty of the opponent and now we need to finish it in London.

We will look at the things that we have improved, the situations that we can create and try to be especially much more efficient in a lot of simple things that today we didn’t do so well.

So, work to do in that sense, but obviously there’s a big game against Everton on Saturday evening that is the priority now. As an aside, I wonder is it just coincidence that Premier League teams have had a difficult week in Europe? Not to make any excuses, and I obviously don’t count Sp*rs in this because of just how terrible they are, but Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool all lost, and in a couple of cases lost badly. People talk about the hectic schedule in almost abstract terms, a sort of fact of life, and perhaps this week illustrates there are consequences when you face good teams who have played fewer games in less competitive leagues, and had a winter break etc. But it is what it is, and we have to deal with it better when the German side visit North London next week.

I was glad to see Havertz back, he’s a curious player in that he can often be relatively untidy but he couples that with genuine impact. I also think we could do with Martin Odegaard’s return as soon as possible. Last night demonstrated the old horseshoe is a collective issue that exists in this team, not one that is linked directly to him, and I think in Europe in particular he remains the kind of player who has the craft at his disposal to make chances that can change games. Let’s see how things stack up towards the weekend then with regards his availability.

For now though, you take that draw, put it in your back pocket, turn the attention to Everton, and look to do better next week. For more on this, we’ll have an Arsecast for you a bit later on this morning, so stand by for that.

Until then, have a good one.

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