Havertz scores injury time winner for Arsenal in Lisburn | Can Slot turn it around against PSG? | Will McIlroy make it back-to-back Masters?

April 7, 2026·21 min·1 clip

Kai Havertz scores a stunning 91st-minute winner for Arsenal, sparking wild celebrations and a potential season reset.

1. Back Pages, hosted by David Garrido with Martin Hardy from The Times and Riyad Housesamurai from The Daily Mail, reviews Champions League results and weekend football headlines. 2. David Garrido hosts; Martin Hardy covers Manchester United and Newcastle for The Times; Riyad Housesamurai writes for The Daily Mail and is reporting from Augusta for the Masters. 3. The episode centres on whether Arsenal can sustain a Premier League and Champions League run after Havertz's 91st-minute winner in Lisbon restored momentum following back-to-back defeats. 4. Kai Havertz scored in the 91st minute at the Estadio José Alvalade to give Arsenal a 1-0 win over Sporting, with David Raya making two key saves including one early and one late in the game. 5. Havertz said after the match 'we have the best goalkeeper in the world,' referring to Raya, and added 'we've had two bad results, we needed the turnaround, we've got that tonight.' 6. Arteta stated that Arsenal's bench players have provided 38 goal involvements this season, the most of any team in Europe's top five leagues, framing the statistic as evidence of squad chemistry. 7. Martin Hardy noted all four of Arsenal's summer 2023 signings — Havertz, Declan Rice, Timber, and David Raya — have proved pivotal, and said Havertz was a far better signing than he received credit for at the time. 8. In the other Champions League tie, Harry Kane scored twice as Bayern Munich beat Real Madrid, with Martin Hardy noting Trent Alexander-Arnold switched off for Kane's first goal, potentially reinforcing Thomas Tuchel's reported reservations about Trent for the World Cup. 9. Riyad said he still backs PSG for the Champions League over Bayern, citing the second leg against Chelsea where PSG 'ripped them apart,' and the panel noted that Mbappe's late goal keeps the Bayern versus Real Madrid tie alive. 10. Manchester United's interim manager Michael Carrick has gone one defeat in his first 10 games in charge, with Amad Diallo publicly backing him for the permanent role after seven wins, and bookmakers now making Carrick the favourite. 11. Martin Hardy flagged that Jason Wilcox as director of football and CEO Omar Barada are still conducting a thorough search for a permanent manager, noting Luis Enrique appears reluctant to leave PSG and Thomas Tuchel signed an extension elsewhere. 12. Liverpool's season is assessed as a crisis: Riyad counts 15 defeats and highlights that Virgil van Dijk publicly said the squad 'gave up' during the 4-0 FA Cup loss to Manchester City as the worst indictment a captain can level at a manager. 13. Arnaud Slot is quoted saying the only reason the score stayed at 4-0 was that Manchester City appeared comfortable enough to stop pressing, a remark Martin Hardy described as suggesting the game could have gone to 6, 7, or 8. 14. Martin Hardy cited Liverpool's failure to sign Marc Guehi in the summer as the most important missed piece of business, while also noting Alexander Rizac arrived unfit with injury and Florian Wiertz is still adapting. 15. The panel agreed Slot won the Premier League in his first season and that sacking him after one bad campaign would be overly reactionary, but both expressed serious doubts about his ability to turn around the PSG tie. 16. In the Premier League transfer market, a Mirror report links a 23-year-old Nottingham Forest midfielder to Manchester City for £65 million as a potential Rodri replacement, with Martin Hardy saying the player has been exceptional in tight spaces since his academy days at Newcastle. 17. The tone is measured and analytical with occasional disagreement between panellists, particularly over PSG's chances and the Liverpool diagnosis. 18. The episode is structured around morning newspaper front pages and Champions League match reviews, delivered at a brisk pace with named journalists each taking a specialist view. 19. Football fans who follow the Premier League title race, Champions League knockout rounds, and transfer market speculation will find specific quotes and named sources. 20. Listeners wanting deep tactical analysis of individual matches or coverage outside English football will find the format too headline-focused.

As heard by us

A brisk back-pages panel that turns headlines into the bigger story.

Back Pages keeps the morning story moving in its usual style, opening with Arsenal's late win over Sporting and then widening to form, confidence, pressure, and the familiar question of whether one result can shift the feel of a season.

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You want the morning back pages, with Arsenal, Champions League debate and Augusta in one sit-down.

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