Arsenal wanted a good start in this FA cup quarter final against Watford and it looked as if we would get it, with the Gunners passing crisply and dominating the early exchanges. We were getting some joy with Chambers and Campbell down the right.
And if Giroud had waited a fraction of a second before making his move and finishing a brilliant passing move involving Ozil and Alexis, the game would have been much different. As it was he was offside and Watford grew more comfortable and frustrated Arsenal hugely for the rest of the half.
The chances we did get, and there were a couple of very good ones, fell to the wrong man and Elneny wasted them. But towards halftime Ozil was really starting to pull the visitors apart and creat openings. And he nearly produced the opener from a corner straight after the break but Giroud’s header was just over.
Then it all went wrong as Watford scored with their first shot on target thanks to great forward play from Ighalo and shocking defending all round. It came from a simple throw in, headed on and fired in. That lifted Watford and they looked a real threat on the counter, while we still struggled to unlock their defence.
THen with half an hour to go Guediora gave our hopes a real hammer blow, lashing in a shot so hard that Ospina had no chance despite it being almost down his throat. The Gunners rallied and Wenger made a triple change and we gave it a go but the ball would not run for our strikers and there was always a Hornet or two bzzing around to deny us.
It was looking done and dustred but with a couple of minutes on the clock Ozil chipped a lovely pass to Welbeck and he smashed it home to give us a glimmer of hope. A minute later it really should have been level but Iwobi hit the posts, Walcott could only get the rebound to Welbeck and he somehow missed the gaping goal.
Welbeck was nearly in again and could perhaps have gone down for a penalty. But that was that and we are out of the FA cup and the season goes from disappointment to disaster.