Kai Havertz wastes huge chance to put Arsenal ahead vs Man Utd with embarrassing finish

Arsenal forward Kai Havertz missed a glorious chance to score his first goal for the club against Manchester United.

Havertz, 24, has failed to hit the ground running since joining Arsenal in a £65m move from Chelsea earlier this summer.

Questions have been raised over the signing of the Germany international, who failed to score in his first four matches for the Gunners.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was forced to defend Havertz in the build-up to Sunday's Premier League match at the Emirates.

"I tell you what I feel about him, I love him," Arteta said during his pre-match press conference.

"I see his qualities every day in training, his work-rate is excellent. The stats are what is missing at the moment - to put the ball in the net.

"It's difficult to ask our supporters more, but my feeling is: 'give him love, and we will get the best out of him'.

"But we have some very, very beautiful examples in the last few years with players that we have given support and love, and they have felt that and just exploded. He has got a lot to give us."

Despite calls from some Arsenal fans for him to be dropped, Havertz started Sunday's match against United and was presented with a huge opportunity to score his first goal for the club early on in the match.

🚨🚨| BIG CHANCE: Havertz somehow misses a huge opportunity to put Arsenal ahead pic.twitter.com/uV46KODc6M

— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) September 3, 2023

After the ball fell to him around eight yards out, Havertz looked certain to score but somehow failed to connect with the ball - embarrassingly slicing his effort to the frustration of the Arsenal supporters on social media.

"How did Havertz miss that?" posted one fan on X.

"That Havertz miss is one that's gonna have my head hot for the rest of the week," joked another.

"Havertz miss was far worse than [Nicolas] Jackson's one yesterday," added another.

While a fourth simply wrote: "Terrible miss."