Mikel Arteta upset with goal conceded but Havertz goal allows Arsenal to be optimistic
Arsenal came out of Leverkusen with a draw after a late penalty and have a chance in the second leg, but Mikel Arteta knows there are things to improve.
It was a bleak opening 88 minutes for Arsenal in the first leg of their round of 16 match with Bayer Leverkusen, but they were able to salvage a draw late and now head back to the Emirates knowing the job isn’t done, but it’s easier after Kai Havertz goal.
Arsenal beaten at their own game
Mikel Arteta didn´t sound thrilled with his side’s performance at the BayArena, especially with one particular part of the match. He did however take joy in the equalizing goal, and the goal scorer. It was another shaky performance from the Premier League leaders, and the leaders of the league phase in the Champions League.
🗣️ Mikel Arteta: “We started the game quite well, had a massive chance with Gabriel Martinelli hitting the crossbar. You score, the game changes completely. With the changes, we had more threat on the wings. At the end, we found a way to draw the match.” ⚡️pic.twitter.com/QMDyby0dFP
— DailyAFC (@DailyAFC) March 11, 2026
The Gunners were beaten at their own game, allowing a Robert Andrich goal off a corner kick despite warning his squad of the danger in the days leading up to the match. “There are always two sides to that. One is the element of the opponent that they picked that weakness, and that lack of attention or urgency in both situations, and the other one is us, because we knew, we showed them three clips from last weekend in three different ways, and we weren’t ready for it, and we got caught,” said the Spanish manager.
Arsenal have become famous, or infamous, around England for their style of play and their reliance on the set piece. They are level for the Premier League record for goals scored off corner kicks, but Andrich was able to give them a bit of their own medicine in the first half of the opening leg.
Arteta swaps make difference
Down a goal an hour in Arteta started to look to his bench, and it proved to be the key scraping a draw out of Leverkusen. He surprised some taking out Bakayo Saka for Noni Madueke who drew the penalty in the final minutes of the 90. Havertz, who came on in the 74th minute for Viktor Gyokeres, tucked the penalty home as Arsenal drew level and set up a tantalizing second leg.
“I thought that we needed something else and Noni has been contributing and being a real threat and I decided to make the change,” Artreta said about the second half substitute. “No surprise at all because that’s his biggest quality. He’s very brave at doing that and Noni is a real threat. To have a player with that ability when you need him and to step in in the manner that he did, big credit to him.”
Havertz, who played for Leverkusen before leaving for the Premier League, has played in just 10 matches this season after recovering from a long term knee injury. He scored his most important goal of the campaign so far, and Arteta couldn’t have been happier for the German. “Him coming back here after such a long time, being part of this club, to come here and score such an important goal, I think it’s a big moment.”
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