Troy Deeney‘s famous comments claiming that Arsenal lacked ‘cojones’ have proved to be correct, so he claims.
The Birmingham striker was at Watford when he made the comments, and he made his statement after his side had overturned a 1-0 deficit to win 2-1, when Tom Cleverley struck an injury time winner, and his words proved a real sting in the tail amongst our fanbase.
I doubt many of you are hearing of his comments now, with him stating that our team lacked cojones at the time, but the English forward insists his words have been vindicated, with none of those players remaining a first-team player at the club any longer.
“We’d come from behind to win with a penalty from me and a late strike from Tom Cleverley,” Deeney stated in his autobiography(via The Sun). “Arsene Wenger, who was the manager at the time, said the decision to award the penalty was ‘scandalous’ and blamed the defeat on that.
“But when I went on BT Sport after the match, the interviewer asked me about what he had said and I came up with a different explanation for our win. I was respectful to Mr Wenger, but I did say, ‘It’s having a bit of cojones’.
“Whenever I play against Arsenal, I’ll go up and think, ‘Let me whack the first one and see who wants it’. What I said touched a nerve, I don’t regret any of it. If anyone actually watched that game back, which they very rarely do, they would see what I was talking about.
“Ten seconds before we score the second goal, the ball goes up to Mesut Ozil and he bottles it because he thinks he’s going to get smashed. Ozil is a fantastic footballer, he is technically gifted and his touch is sweet but, in that moment, he thought he was going to get hit from behind. So in that instance, they wimped out.
“I was hammered by Paul Merson and a host of ex-Arsenal players. Because you have stopped playing, you have more entitlement to say that than me? Are you worried that I am going to be better at your job than you?
“If anything, I am more entitled to talk about this era of the Premier League because I am in it. I am not dated. I think I have been proved right because there are not many people who played in that game for Arsenal who are still at the club, certainly not in the first team.”
Alexandre Lacazette, Mo Elneny, Sead Kolasinac and Granit Xhaka all remain in the first-team squad from that starting line-up, and you could say that only the Swiss midfielder remains a regular in the team so far this season, but does that mean that his comments have been proven right?