Arsenal have earned a 3-2 win away at Watford this afternoon to send our side fourth in the Premier League table.
The Gunners wasted no time in snatching the early lead when Martin Odegaard pulled off a neat interchange with Bukayo Saka before placing his effort beyond the goalkeeper just five minutes in.
We looked really positive on the ball and looked like we could well take full control of this fixture early before being stung by a goal against the run of play, with Cucho Hernandez levelling the scores with a sublime overhead kick 11 minutes into the game.
The home side really picked up their energy after their wondrous goal, and appeared to be the most likely to double their lead as we struggled to retain possession for long spells, but it was then our turn to score against the run of the things when Alexandre Lacazette laid off Bukayo Saka to curl his effort into the far right of the goal.
Similarly to the home side, our goal then seemed to give us the momentum to push on again and take a grip on the game, and we went into the break ahead.
Shortly into the new half we scored a mirrored effort to that of our last. This time with Laca laying it behind him to Gabriel Martinelli a the other end of the pitch, who placed his effort into the goalkeeper’s left with his right boot, as opposed to Saka’s left.
The game got a little physical as the game run on, with Watford fighting to try and get themselves back in the game, but their efforts came to fore too late when Moussa Sissoko finally pulled them one behind in the dying minutes of the match.
It just wasn’t to be for the home side, despite putting in a very positive and attacking display, but they can take solace in the fact that if they can continue with that kind of effort and hard work, they will surely be winning more matches and mount a serious bid to avoid relegation.
I can’t help but feel really good about the way in which we played also. Earlier in the season we would definitely have let this result slip us by, and wouldn’t have been shocked to have see us lose this tie some months ago.
Did this performance show you just how far we have come under Arteta?
Patrick