Chelsea emerged 2-1 winners in the first match of the ongoing Mind Series pre-season friendly competition, as they defeated Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Kai Havertz’ first-half strike for Chelsea was cancelled out by Granit Xhaka in the second half, but Tammy Abraham’s winner meant that the southwest London side were victorious against their city rivals from north London.
Even though it might have just been a friendly, London derbies always have some bragging rights at stake – and so it seemed when Blues goalscorer Havertz trolled Bernd Leno on Instagram following the game.
After the match, Havertz posted an Instagram story of him driving his shot past Leno into the Arsenal net – and in a twist, the German tagged his compatriot in the story as well.
He tagged Leno 😭 pic.twitter.com/Xidi17KVpM
— ✈️ (@Arrizabalager) August 1, 2021
While many fans on social media platforms thought that it was some elite trolling by Havertz, many also pointed out the fact that Leno and Havertz are very good friends.
The pair know each other since their days playing for Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga and still continue to reignite their relationship in the German national camp.
As a matter of fact, the pair also shared a few light moments yesterday as the players were walking off the pitch for the half time interval.
Leno has previously spoken about his friendship with players such as Havertz, Julian Brandt, Jonathan Tah and Timo Werner in an interacting session with fans on Reddit – but in spite of his friendship with Havertz, it was still a moment of trolling that went viral on social media platforms after the game.
Leno will certainly hope to get one up over his Leverkusen friend when Arsenal meet Chelsea in the Premier League yet again in the upcoming 2021/22 season.