An ugly but deserved win for Arteta’s Century!
In the bosses 100th game in charge of Arsenal, although not the best of games the three points was the main thing.
It was a less than impressive win in the November sunshine at the Emirates, but the most important thing was that as a team we showed our grit and got over the line.
After coming out of the blocks fast, we started as we did against Leicester last week and you thought it was going to be another comfortable game for us.
Yet an offside Saka goal, VAR and poor refereeing decisions meant Watford were in the game for longer periods than what they deserved, in more ways than one!
I mean I don’t know how Danny Rose remained on the pitch, but somehow he did. But if it was an Arsenal player doing to a Watford one what Rose did to Lacazette, they would have been sent off for sure!
To some it wasn’t a serious incident but to others it was deemed serious foul play and that’s what it should have been seen as. But we got the penalty, that unfortunately for him, Aubameyang couldn’t convert and so despite being the better team it was 0-0 going into half time.
Thankfully though it didn’t take too long for the goal to finally come and STAND. It was 11 minutes into the second half in fact and Emile Smith-Rowe scored for the third game in a row.
On a day that we kept a clean sheet and got another win to keep the momentum going it will be surely classed as an important three points.
The team were not at their best if you compare it to what we have seen in recent weeks though. At times they were sloppy and untimely and maybe at times were unlucky with certain decisions, but clinically it just wasn’t happening, and they wasted a lot of shots, that was until Emile Smith-Rowe struck for the only goal of the game.
But this is for sure one game Aubameyang would want to forget. A missed penalty and zero goals, all in all I feel that his performance dropped in this game despite playing well over the last few games, but we can’t expect perfection every game and he is just human.
All in all, as I have said, a win is a win and we ground out the result to take away all three points and keep a clean sheet, which says a lot about how the team, the back line, and the goalkeeper has developed.
So, I guess you can say this time around the Cojones were ever present for Arsenal!
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
Watford played like thugs and they were lucky to get one red card only. Fortunately, Arsenal aren’t pushovers anymore, because of our great recruitment
Rose’s hard playing style hasn’t changed since he kicked Leno’s chest two years ago. Too bad Mr Cojones wasn’t there
Yes Gai you have said it all 👌
A win or draw at Liverpool will be an evident of our new”cojones” and mentality this season. Though a lose won’t change the table much. Games after international break is always unpredictable especially away to a big opponent.
Yup, luckily some of our key players won’t play for their countries. Hopefully Salah and Mane will be too tired to press us after their international duties
All that’s missing is goals. We are currently:
10th at goals scored
12th at big chances created
In the long run, these will come to haunt us if the team doesn’t improve. Against the likes of Liverpool we might get 1-3 chances and we got to bury them first time.
And we are 4’th in clean sheets 😉
Yes, very positive.
That was the type of game, where we previously couldn’t win. But our strong defence was key.
I remember a game against Watford a couple of years back at Vicarage Road, where we played for about ten minutes and then were battered like a bunch of wimps. Good to see Gabrielle, Tomiyasu, Lacazette and Ramsdale get stuck in to give a great example to the younger guys. ‘They shall not pass’ has become our motto.
Sincerely, I was worried we would either draw or worse still, lose. The game had so much going against us and in such games, we don’t get anything from them. This game gave me a new feeling really. If we have these kind of games more this season and scale through with draws and wins, we have a very solid platform for good future.