Kai Havertz has admitted that right now he doesn’t want a day off from training or playing as the title race goes down to the wire.
The German played a big part in our 3-0 win against Bournemouth, winning the penalty that led to the all-important opening goal just before half-time after sustained dominance, as well as starring up front with some excellent hold-up play and was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet as he forced Mark Travers into two good saves.
And having been in the thick of the goals during his spell leading our line, he said he constantly can’t wait for the next moment he gets to play with his teammates, whether that's at the Sobha Realty Training Centre or in the heat of the Premier League championship fight.
Giving an insight into how he’s coping with being in the hunt for silverware, he said: “I’m really enjoying it – it’s brilliant for me personally. The other players especially make it quite easy for me, so I enjoy my role, try to work hard in training and try to help the team.
“I really enjoy every second, sometimes I don’t feel like I don’t even want to have a day off because you’re just so excited for the weekend and really want to work with the team, try to get everything out of us to be better prepared and we do that every single day.
“It’s going to be two tough games [left]. We have a lot to play for, we have to win those games and then see where we’re going to go. Right now, though, the mood is good but we’re going to prepare now for the big game this week against Manchester United and hopefully win that as well.”
The victory against the Cherries was our 14th from our last 16 matches since the turn of the year, and our fourth in succession as we continue to put pressure on Manchester City and win our first league title in 20 years.
Kai revealed that he began to feel the nerves jangle a little when we battered our opponents in the first half with 15 shots but didn’t score, until Bukayo Saka slotted home a penalty to set us on our way to success.
“I think especially in the first half we played brilliantly,” he analysed. “We had lots of chances; it could have been three or four nil in the first half for sure. The second half was a bit tricky – I think they also played quite well, but in the end, we won 3-0 so we’re very happy with that.
“In these games, it’s the little details. We feel the pressure as we need to win the last games. Then when you don’t score, and it gets closer to half-time, obviously, the nerves are coming, but we tried to leave them behind us, and thanks to Bukayo for scoring his goal and making it a bit easier for us.”
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.