Eberechi Eze gave Arsenal the lead in the ninth minute but limped out in the second half with an apparent left-ankle problem after Kai Havertz collapsed in pain and was forced off shortly after the half-hour mark.
Havertz, who provided the pass for Eze's early opener, went down in obvious distress roughly 20 minutes after the assist and was replaced by Viktor Gyökeres in the 34th minute. The Germany forward’s night ended with his status unclear; the extent of the injury was unknown after the match, and his World Cup participation has been described as being in jeopardy.
The substitution came after Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta had deployed Havertz up front ahead of Gyökeres. Sky pundit Thomas Hitzlsperger reacted to the sight of Havertz going off with a blunt diagnosis: "You gradually lose confidence in your body." That observation carried weight because Havertz had been sidelined with injury for almost the entire period from February 2025 to January 2026 and only returned to action gradually in mid-January.
Havertz's return had gathered momentum: he started both of Germany's warm-up friendlies against Switzerland and Ghana and was beginning to work back into Arsenal's attacking mix. Now, however, the timing could not be worse. Germany's first World Cup group match against Curaçao is less than seven weeks away, and Havertz had been seen as part of his nation’s plans after his recent comeback.
The night grew more complicated when Eze, who had celebrated his early strike, was forced off in the second half with what was described as a problem with his left ankle. For eberechi eze the goal proved brief solace: he had one goal and one assist in eight Premier League appearances this season, but the immediate issue is fitness rather than form.
Arsenal went into the game knowing a victory was needed to put maximum pressure on Manchester City in the title race, and the two injury blows — one to a forward pushing to re-establish himself after a long layoff, the other to a key attacking midfielder who had helped spark the team — were an abrupt response to that demand. The club also has a Champions League semi-final first leg against Atlético Madrid next week, a fixture that now looms with added urgency given the late wounds.
The tension is straightforward: Havertz had battled back into the side and earned starts for both country and club, yet the collapse on Saturday undercuts a comeback narrative and raises immediate selection questions for Germany and Arsenal. Meanwhile, Eze’s ankle problem removes a creative option from Arteta’s choices at a critical point in the season; both problems force answers faster than a coaching staff would prefer.
Medical assessments will follow, but what the facts already show is a club and a player with momentum interrupted. Arsenal must now weigh short-term recovery against a congested schedule, and Germany must assess a striker whose World Cup prospects were already fragile after a lengthy absence. For Eze, who had been the man celebrating the opening goal, the match ended with the very human image of a player carried off and a manager having to reconfigure plans for the days ahead.
