Troy Deeney has defended himself over his statement that Arsenal lacked ‘cojones’ in 2017.
He made that statement after his former club, Watford earned an unlikely 2-1 win over Arsenal.
The attacker has since been hated by Arsenal’s fans who have made sure he ate his words.
The Gunners contributed to Watford being relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2019/2020 season after they defeated the Hornets in one of the last matches of that season to confine them to relegation to the Championship.
The attacker who now plays for Birmingham wrote in his Sun Sports column about the controversial statement and defended himself.
He talked about Mesut Ozil’s actions leading to Watford’s winning goal in that particular game and then concluded that a closer look at the current Arsenal team that has just beaten Tottenham shows he was right about that Gunners team.
He wrote: “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.”
The Gunners will look to keep improving and winning matches in this campaign.