Both Arsenal’s Kai Havertz and Declan Rice will be walking a tightrope during Tuesday night’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg against Bayern Munich.
The two teams meet at the Emirates, where it will be exclusively Gunners fans in attendance after Bayern fans were banned from attending by UEFA for throwing fireworks onto the pitch against Lazio in the last round. As a result of their fine form in the league, Arsenal are favourites coming into the clash, but progression to the last four is unlikely to be easy.
One headache for Gunners boss Mikel Arteta before kick-off stems from the fact that two of his most important players in Havertz and Rice are both one yellow card away from suspension. If either of the two summer signings are cautioned on Tuesday night, they will be banned from featuring in the second leg at the Allianz Arena.
A tough task awaits Arsenal over both legs and the idea of going to the home of the German giants without Havertz and Rice is likely to fill some Gunners fans with fear. However, Bayern are faced with a similar problem themselves.
Were either of Alphonso Davies or Leon Goretzka to pick up yellow cards, then they too would be out of action for the return leg on March 17. It is important to note that all yellow cards accumulated over the course of the competition are wiped after the quarter-final stage, to prevent players missing the final through too many yellow cards.
Yellow cards have been a problem for Havertz especially this term, in what has been an otherwise impressive debut campaign for the Gunners. The Germany international has eight yellow cards to his name in the Premier League, 11 in all competitions.
He managed to avoid a booking during the 3-0 win away at Brighton on Saturday, meaning he can’t now serve a suspension in the league for too many cautions. However, Arteta did concede he was surprised by Havertz’s disciplinary record.
Speaking before Saturday’s clash at the Amex, the Arsenal boss was asked if Havertz’s yellow card tally came as a shock and he admitted: “Yeah. If you told me another player, maybe not, but with him yeah.
“I will have to go back and look at those yellow cards, but if they are yellow cards then we’ll have to improve because we don’t want our players having that many because we are the best in the league for that. It’s something to improve.”
