A famous, famous victory for Watford and an infamous performance from Arsenal
who lost a
golden opportunity in the Premier League title race with a
display that was base. They deservedly lost. They can have no dispute;
no complaint over that because of their own carelessness. With Arsene
Wenger banned from the touchline they lost touch.
This was Watford’s first win in eight Premier League games and there
will be no threat of relegation if they maintain these determined
heights while Arsenal will be subsumed into another period of angst as
they prepare to travel to Chelsea this Saturday. Arsenal were far better
in an increasingly desperate second-half but Watford with-held the
onslaught. This time there was no comeback, no late goals – only a
chorus of home disapproval at the sodden end.
Arsenal were sloppy from the off;
conceding a series of careless free-kicks – in particular by Shkodran
Mustafi – and then conceding a goal. Again it was Mustafi who erred and
this time Tom Cleverley tapped the ball sideways for Younes Kaboul to
thump it from 25 yards with his shot deceiving Petr Cech and cradling
into the net. The deception was caused by a deflection, taking a change
of direction off Aaron Ramsey to wrong-foot the goalkeeper.
It was also the first ever time Watford had led Arsenal in a Premier
League game. They were buoyed. Watford had made a bristling start,
belying their recent form and astonishingly doubled their advantage when
they were again aided by Arsenal’s carelessness.
Again Mustafi was involved,
allowing Etienne Capoue to run past him and that came after an appalling
throw-in, a mix-up between Aaron Ramsey and Gabriel, giving the ball to
the Watford midfielder. Capoue ran on, superbly, skilfully, beating
Francis Coquelin and then Mustafi and his eventual shot was parried by
Cech but squirmed across goal.
There were three, four Arsenal defenders there but Troy Deeney wanted
it more and hurtled in to turn the ball home. Already there was a whiff
of anger; a mood of frustration at the Emirates with just two minutes
and 54 seconds between the goals and the only consolation for Arsenal
being they had to surely improve and also had plenty of time to do it.