In the end, the job was done, three points were secured and The Arsenal finished the evening top of the table, with the ability to watch the Liverpool v City game without thinking that we’d fluffed our chances this weekend.

But it could have been very different indeed, had Kai Havertz not stepped in to score the winner against Brentford for the second time this season. In November he was there at the back post to bundle the ball in against a stubborn and compact Brentford and yesterday he delivered again, nodding in a really good header that Flekken got a hand to, but it was too powerful and we win the game in the dying stages.

Should Havertz been on the pitch? By the letter of the law the answer should be ‘no’, because he did dive in the box and he should have received a second yellow, but the law is an ass and he shouldn’t have been on a yellow in the first place. So perhaps there’s an element of karma in there and as much as Thomas Frank can bemoan the refereeing decision in that instance, Brentford had their fair share of decisions go their way too. Trossard hauled down in the box anyone? That was a penalty and quite why VAR didn’t see that is beyond me. Thankfully though, as opposed to last season, we weren’t undone by poor refereeing decisions at home to Brentford.

The pre match talk from a few corners of the Bedford Tavern that I was in pre game was all about how this would be a rout. There were a few of the lads suggesting that this Brentford team were out of form, they had a bunch of injuries, that we’re in great form and we should be racking up some goal difference. But I was far from convinced about that. I even said on Twitter to a few people before the game that this had the feeling of a nervy two-oner match. I just had a feeling that Brentford would score. They’d sit deep, they’d be compact, they wouldn’t create many chances but they would have one or two moments and that’s exactly what yesterday’s game turned out to be.

We started the game really well though. You can tell this is an Arsenal team full of confidence and swagger and the way we moved the ball around and kept it ticking over seems to be becoming quicker each week. Arteta named an unchanged side – barring Ramsdale for the ineligible Raya and the injured Martinelli (who we all hope was just rested because of that cut – hopefully he’s back for Porto) – and we popped the ball around with purpose. So when Declan Rice nodding in from a Ben White cross on around 18 minutes, the assumption around me in block five was that we’d go on to rack up a cricket score. I will even admit that I turned to Johnny who I was with for the evening and said “ok, this might be a blitz after all”.

But football is a funny old game, as they say, and it was certainly not going to be a rout, as Brentford stayed to their game plan, stayed compact, let us have the ball and we never quite managed that second goal in that first half that would have killed this game off in its truest sense. Brentford made it bitty; they knocked the ball long, they knocked it out of play, they took their time and they knew that it only had to be one moment, one mistake, that they would capitalise on. And that’s exactly what happened right on halftime. Oh Aaron. Oh Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, you were supposed to come in and deliver a flawless performance to show us what we’d been missing. But sadly it was his mistake which brought Brentford undeservedly level and Wissa will have been thanking the football gods that Ramsdale held on to it too long. At halftime despite basically controlling the game, we were level and Brentford had something for the second half to hold on to. At that point my mind started to wander back to pre-game discussions and how I said it would be a nervy 2-1 Arsenal win; I guess I knew we were in for a second half of a little bit of Brentford gamesmanship and Arsenal frustration. And that’s exactly how it panned out.

Apparently the ball was in play for less than 50 minutes in 105 minutes of recorded time. That gives an indication of what we were up against, but Brentford did also cause us a couple more problems in that second half. There was the Toney shot from 40 yards that Ramsdale did superb to save, followed by a decent header in which Ramsdale tipped over. You can say what you like about Brentford’s form and their injuries, but they create chances and they did that yesterday.

So we were going to have to dig in and thankfully that man Kai delivered once again. He’s hit a bit of a purple patch in form and that is great timing for us, because we don’t have that 30-goal a season striker to constantly bail us out, but we do have a collective of players who will all step up at different times and Havertz is delivering at this particular moment in time. He misses chances and he missed onein the first half that he probably should have buried when in behind their back line, but he does step up with some big goals and he’s done it again yesterday.

So we wake up this morning knowing that we’re top of the league. I will be surprised if it’s still the same come 7pm tonight, but for now we have done our bit and we can watch on knowing we’re still in this title race thanks to the head of our £65million German. There will be a very relieved Aaron Ramsdale this morning I’ll bet. Blushes have been saved.

I’m going live on the Same Old Arsenal pod at 11am this morning to chat through the game with Amanda and James so if you want to join us you can do so then, or it’ll be live on all audio platforms in the afternoon at some stage.

Other than that I’ll take my leave for today and wish you and yours a Happy Mother’s Day.

Catch you all tomorrow.