Arsenal worked hard to earn a win over Watford today at the Emirates, in a game which looked like it was going to get away from us.
We should have gone 1-0 up inside opening 15 minutes when Alexandre Lacazette chipped over the goalkeeper, only for the ball to bounce wide, and almost immediately after Petr Cech was forced into a big save.
We continued to bring the game to our opponents, and nearly opened the scoring once again through Granit Xhaka, who ran onto a rebound rolling out of the box only for the keeper to push it away.
We were also denied a penalty by the referee for a foul on Lacazette inside the box, and at half-time the match looked wide open with both sides playing some more than decent football.
The second half started much like the first, with us continuing to open up the Watford defence but failing at the final hurdle, and the match continued to excite, and entering the final 15 minutes we looked doom to end our run of consecutive wins.
Isaac Success found himself clear through on goal only to (thankfully) push his shot past the keeper and past the post for a goal kick, and it seemed as if they were going to sucker punch us late on and walk away with the spoils, but I was gratefully wrong!
Alex Iwobi runs down the touchline to whip a ball in towards Alexandre Lacazette, only for the big Frenchman to miss a connection and the ball to ping of the defender’s foot and past his own keeper. 1-0 and with less than 10 minutes to go, we can begin to stop holding our breath.
But it doesn’t stay 1-0 for long, as once again Lacazette is involved as he uses his strength to get into a strong position in the box, and he finds an in-running Mesut Ozil to put away. 2-0. Game over.
Did Watford deserve a point for their display? Does Lacazette’s late involvement forgive his early misses? Is he becoming our MVP?
Pat J