Journalist Charles Watts believes that one Arsenal star was extremely fortunate to escape a serious incident against Wolves.
Arsenal were able to produce a professional performance to grind out a vital 2-0 win against Wolves on Saturday evening.
The Gunners weren’t at their best at Molineux Stadium, but were able to pick up the three points they needed to return to the top of the Premier League table thanks to goals from Leandro Trossard and Martin Odegaard.
At this stage in the season, winning is all that counts, and Mikel Arteta’s side desperately needed to triumph against the Midlands side as they needed to bounce back from having lost their previous two matches. Declan Rice promised Arsenal fans a positive response to these two defeats against Wolves, and they were able to deliver that.
Mikel Arteta runs exhaustion risk with Arsenal squad
Another factor to consider at this late stage in the campaign is player fitness. Whilst Arsenal don’t have many players sidelined with injury at this time, they do have a number of stars who are having their stamina tested.
Arteta has shown that he is reluctant to overly-rotate his starting XI, meaning that the likes of Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes, and William Saliba are all having to start virtually every single game.
An injury to any of these trusted players would be a devastating blow at this point, and as far as Charles Watts is concerned, Havertz ought to consider himself lucky not to have sustained such a setback against Wolves.
Kai Havertz ‘so lucky’ to escape serious injury v Wolves
The German ace was the victim of a poorly-timed, crunching challenge from Max Kilman. Replays showed that the Wolves man’s boot was raised in the tackle, as he made no contact with the ball at all, but his studs smashed into Havertz’s leg above the ankle.
Referee Paul Tierney did not deem this to be a red card-worthy offence, and whilst a clearly hurt Havertz received treatment, VAR sided with Tierney as they conducted their review of the incident.
Watts has now taken aim at the officials over this incident. Speaking on his Inside Arsenal YouTube channel, the reporter said, “I thought Paul Tierney was awful…I thought he absolutely put the players in danger with some of his decisions…I do not understand how that was not a red card. I just don’t get it. As much as I’m criticising Paul Tierney…even worse, I don’t know how VAR can look at this and not deem that a reckless, out of control, dangerous tackle…Havertz is so lucky he didn’t break his leg…such a lucky, lucky boy to escape serious injury.”
Fortunately, Havertz did not seem to sustain any long-term damage from the tackle, but he easily could have done. Arsenal have already taken issue with the PGMOL over a lack of protection for their players this season, and this was certainly a case of both a referee and VAR failing to properly punish a dangerous challenge.