Hodgson hoping that the luck goes Watford’s way instead of Arsenal

As mentioned earlier, Watford have had two great performances in their last three games, with a win at Aston Villa and a goalless draw against Manchester United. The problem is that both those games were away from home, but at home they are on a run of six straight defeats ahead of the visit from Arsenal.

The Watford boss Roy Hodgson admits it’s a big task, but he thinks recent results show that the Hornets could get something from the game. Roy told the Herts Mercury: “It’s a very big challenge, in the same way, that to be fair, Aston Villa was and Manchester United was. But we came out on the right side of those games in terms of our performance and getting something from the game.

“We must take the same attitude into this game. We know perfectly well that Arsenal are a very, very strong club and a very strong team at the moment. And they happen to be a form team where everything seems to be gelling very well for them and they’re producing the sort of football that gets them results.

“But us talking about that doesn’t change anything. We have to be prepared for whatever they throw at us and just hope our performance on the day will allow us to come away with a similar sort of good feeling about ourselves as the Aston Villa game and the Manchester United game gave us.”

Hodgson has arrived with one simple target, to keep Watford in the Premier League, and they are currently 5 points below safety. He is trying to first of all stop Arsenal from scoring, and hope that luck goes Watford’s way during the game. He continued: “We can only stay in the league by winning matches, and to win matches you need to stop goals going in at one end, and score them at the other. Now that is the nature of the job. That’s the nature of the business.

“Everyone understands it here and the challenges don’t get any easier. Because after Arsenal we have got to go to Wolves, and they’re doing pretty well. Then we’ve got to go to Southampton, and they’re doing well. So there’s no point really even thinking along those lines.

“We just have to think about how can we match Arsenal. How can we cause them problems? How can we deny them the chances they’re going to want to create? And then hope if there is any luck on the day, it goes to us and not to them.”

So, it is a high pressure game for both sides, and the longer the game goes on without the Arsenal strikers getting a breakthrough, the more nervous we will all be getting. Let’s hope Arsenal can strike early and settle our nerves!

COYG!

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Mikel Arteta’s FULL pre-Watford press conference 11.45 mins