And defensive marshall Saliba said: “Every player makes mistakes, last month I made two mistakes and my team-mates were with me. We are always together, we respond well – he responded well as well, he had three good saves and I am so happy for him.”
Saliba attributes Havertz’s scoring spree to confidence. The Chelsea recruit, who cost £65m, has netted in four consecutive league matches, matching his tally from the prior 23 games.
“I’m so happy for him,” Saliba added. “He is a very, very good player and now he has the confidence and we are so happy to have him like that and we hope he will keep going.”
Meanwhile, Vitaly Janelt believes Brentford are simply falling on the wrong side of the margins and the Bees midfielder felt their absence of fortune was summed up by Arsenal matchwinner Havertz still being on the pitch.
The Germany star had a penalty appeal rejected following a challenge by Nathan Collins. But Brentford felt it was a dive and Havertz, who was already on a booking, should have been dismissed.
“Right now, I don’t think momentum is with us,” Janelt said. “Everyone expected that Arsenal would win by three, four, five today because of their last results. But everyone knows how difficult it is to play against us either at home or away.
“They didn’t create many chances and, for me, it was a clear yellow and then red to Havertz. It was a clear dive for me. Then he scores the winner, but that’s football.”
Despite earning only seven points out of the possible 42 in their recent matches, Brentford still have a five-point cushion above the relegation zone. Their head coach Thomas Frank, who also criticized Havertz’s fall as a “blatant” second booking, said he was encouraged by their performance.
“The mentality, the effort, the shift, the personality this team is showing should make all the Brentford fans unbelievably proud,” Frank said. “How much they fought for the badge was incredible, against the in-form team in the Premier League.
“Everyone, rightly so, was praising Arsenal. They have scored however many goals in the last seven games and we kept them to a very, very, very minimum.”