3 positives & negatives from Arsenal's late win against Brentford

Kai Havertz’s late header sent the home fans into a frenzy as Arsenal secured all three points against a struggling Brentford.

Arsenal quickly settled into the game and looked comfortable in the early minutes, although they struggled to break down a tough Brentford defence. Declan Rice broke the deadlock in the 19th with a powerful header to put the Gunners into cruise control. However, Yoane Wissa equalised on the stroke of half time following an Aaron Ramsdale error.

The second half was a scrappy affair and as the minutes ticked by, it seemed more and more likely that Arsenal’s winning streak was set to come to an end. The Gunners kept pushing and Havertz netted in the 86th minute to spare Ramsdale’s blushes and send Arsenal top of the league.

3 positives & negatives from Arsenal’s late win against Brentford

The win takes Arsenal to the top of the table ahead of the clash involving title rivals Manchester City and Liverpool. The result takes Arsenal to 64 points with ten games to go. Let's take a look at 3 positives and negatives from the game.

Positive #1: Havertz scores again as goal contributions continue to come from all over the pitch

Kai Havertz has not had an easy time since joining the club in the summer. Following a tough spell at Chelsea, the signing was written off by pundits and fans alike as a failure before the German had even kicked a ball. Fast forward a few months and Havertz has scored yet another vital goal.

He may have missed some difficult chances early in the game but once again he was there when it mattered. The goal was his fourth in as many games, the first time he has achieved this since his time at Bayer Leverkusen. Havertz also achieved two assists in this time in a run of form that has seen him become second top scorer in the league for Arsenal this season. 

This is not the first time this season that Havertz has won the points late on, in fact it is not the first time this season that Havertz has won the points late on against Brentford this season. The German has been a key player at the top of the pitch and once again proved his worth in the game.

It is not just Kai Havertz who has stepped up in the absence of a clinical striker. Goal contributions have been coming from all over the pitch and Ben White added another two assists to his tally for the season, sending in two perfect crosses which were just as important as the goals themselves. However, while we managed to get the result in the end, this takes me onto my first negative from this game.

Negative #1: Another reminder that we lack a player with a killer edge

Arsenal headed into the game with the best goalscoring record in Europe since the start of 2024, with 31 league goals in seven games. However, against a resilient Brentford defence, the Gunners were faced with a painful reminder that they still lack a clinical goalscorer. 

Brentford defended well and managed to limit Arsenal to 17 shots with only six on target. However, of those shots too many were high and wide and even the shots on target hardly troubled Flekken in the Brentford net. At the end of the day, we got the result but as we have seen in other games this season and last season, that is not always the case.

In a game such as this one, you must be absolutely clinical and a lot of the pressure from the game would have been lifted with another goal. Arsenal have been linked to names such as Victor Osimhen and Viktor Gyökeres, and you feel that had one of them been in the Arsenal line-up today, the Gunners would have killed the game long before Brentford equalised.

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