IT’S AARON RAMSBAILED
Dec spares blushes as Havertz saves day
ONE third of the season has elapsed and Arsenal are back looking down on the rest – just as they were this time last year.
But it was a tense 200th game at the helm for boss Mikel Arteta as Aaron Ramsdale endured a nightmare on his return to league action.
The England keeper, only playing because on-loan Bees man David Raya was ineligible, looked in a state of panic from the outset.
But despite two potentially awful first-half mistakes, Ramsdale, taunted by the Brentford faithful, survived. And so did Arsenal with sub Kai Havertz popping up to head in Bukayo Saka’s 89th-minute cross to send them to the summit – a point clear of Manchester City.
It is tight at the top. The point spread among the leading five clubs was just four yesterday morning compared to the ninepoint average at this stage of a campaign over the previous 20 years.
The Gunners’ pre-festive fixture list is decent, too. Every league game, home and away, until the
December 23 trip to Liverpool, seems winnable.
No time like the present, then, to put the foot down – not that mid-table Brentford would be pushovers.
Few could forget how they beat the Gunners at home in their first-ever Premier League game.
And, of course, there was that recall by default for Ramsdale. That was always going to be interesting.
And on 13 minutes we saw why when the Emirates outcast slipped playing out from the back – and was only spared a horror show by Declan Rice’s magnificent clearance off the line from Bryan Mbeumo. Arteta looked pensive, Thomas Frank held his head in his hands.
And Ramsdale was clearly reeling, confidence shot to pieces as a 37th-minute throw, which ended up bouncing way short of its target, underlined.
It took the Gunners a while to regain their composure.
Their biggest threat before the break came from set-pieces. Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel all had offtarget attempts at corners.
But after Gabriel Jesus stung the hands of Bees stopper Mark Flekken twice, Trossard appeared to have secured the breakthrough
on the stroke of half-time. Time for VAR to rule the Belgium forward offside by a matter of inches before he headed in Jesus’s assist.
When Martin Odegaard fired over immediately after the restart, it seemed Arsenal were increasing the pace. Yet they still laboured and Neal Maupay almost turned a poor night into a complete disaster for the visitors but his header was blocked.
However, just as it seemed both sides had settled for a draw, Havertz’s introduction grabbed the glory. No one was more relieved than Ramsdale who fell to his knees in gleeful celebration.