Mikel Arteta makes Kai Havertz admission as Arsenal star escapes red card against Burnley | OneFootball

German was lucky to stay on the pitch after horror challenge

Mikel Arteta admitted he was worried Kai Havertz would be sent off in Arsenal's win over Burnley.

Havertz scored the only goal in Arsenal's nervous victory, heading in from a Bukayo Saka corner ten minutes before half-time.

With 20 minutes remaining, Havertz was fortunate not to be dismissed.

As Lesley Ugochukwu tried to break away from him, the striker lunged in and caught the midfielder high on his calf.

Havertz was shown a yellow card and that was not upgraded despite a VAR review. Gary Neville on commentary said that the decision was "not right" and Havertz was a "lucky boy".

Asked for his verdict, Arteta said: "I certainly got worried when they were checking it.

"When I looked at the bench they said that it wasn't, but I haven't had a look at the action."

Havertz was replaced shortly after that by Viktor Gyokeres, who worked tirelessly up front and was strong in getting the hosts up the pitch.

It was yet another tense ending for Arsenal, with Arteta joking: "I thought that the amount of hair that I have is never going to go away but this job is going to test it to the limit."

Burnley interim boss Michael Jackson was left hugely frustrated that Havertz avoided a straight red card and Arsenal were not reduced to ten men.

Despite the narrow scoreline building the tension inside the stadium, Burnley did not register a single shot on target. However, Jackson was adamant it would have been a different match had Havertz been given his marching orders.

"It would have changed the game in our favour," Jackson said.

"In today's game, it is a red card and it is dangerous. He could have injured him as well.

"That means that they go down to ten with 20 minutes to go, we are still in the game.

"We stayed in the game as long as we could. They're big decisions that sometimes we don't get, and we haven't got throughout the season."