Claudio Ranieri has claimed that Arsenal showed a lack of respect in the build-up to the goal, with his Watford side seemingly putting the ball out of play.
The Gunners earned a 1-0 victory over the Hornets at the Emirates on Sunday thanks to a goal from Emile Smith Rowe, but the visitors feel hard done-by.
Danny Rose had put the ball out for the throw in the belief that one of their players was injured, but the game didn’t stop, Alexandre Lacazette ran over and took the throw-in, and we ultimately scored in the actions following this.
Manager Ranieri has made a point of bringing up the action, with our players seemingly playing on and claiming the points through that passage of play, claiming that we didn’t give respect to their side.
“We put out the ball and everybody expected Arsenal to give back the ball,” Ranieri told reporters after the final whistle(via the Standard).
“[Moussa] Sissoko and Rose said, ‘Give the ball to us, we put the ball out, there was an injured player’. After this it was very strange.
“There was a cross, Kiko Femenia hit the ball with the header, [Ismaila] Sarr took the ball, in my opinion there’s a big foul, but nothing happened and then they score the goal. It was very, very strange.
“Our relationship is very good, I told [Arteta] there isn’t respect when we put the ball out. I said there isn’t respect in this action.”
Not one of our players stopped playing, almost as if there was no understanding that they had needed to put the ball out of play. If certain individuals had made the decision on purpose, it could possibly have been to do with the physical way that Watford were trying to play, especially Rose, who got away with many aggressive actions, and I wouldn’t begrudge them having reacted in such a way.
Do you believe the players knowingly opted against gifting the ball back on purpose?
Patrick