A 1-0 home victory over Sporting in the second leg of a Champions League quarterfinal was a huge swing for Arsenal at the end of their week — an English club recovering from back-to-back elimination rounds in both domestic cups — said attacker Kai Havertz.
Havertz scored the winning goal against Sporting in the tie, again as a substitute, which gave Arsenal an edge going into next week’s return leg in London.
“A big turnaround for us for sure because we lost the last two games. So we needed to recover today and I made it happen,” said the German.
Arsenal’s hopes of a ‘quadruple’ have been reduced to a ‘double’ when they were upended by Manchester City in the League Cup final and shocked by Championship side Southampton in the FA Cup on Saturday.
But Havertz added that the north London outfit can still finish the season with silverware.
“We united as a group, we have plenty ahead this season. We have seven weeks ahead of us, we can win big titles and we will go for that,” he said.
Havertz was also full of praise for goalkeeper David Raya, who after being forced to make a number of key interventions was named player of the match in the Champions League tie.
“Over the last two seasons for me the best keeper in the world. He’s (David Raya) fantastic, he has saved us so many times and we are very happy with him.”
Arsenal, who lead the standings with 70 points, host Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday.