Arsenal had won their last 9 games against Watford at home up until last season when the Hornets arrived for an FA Cup match (a competition that we hadn’t lost a game in for 3 seasons) but we let our North London neighbours bully our stars off the ball and surprisingly lost the game 2-1 after going 2-0 down.
So it looked like ‘deja vu’ yesterday, when Watford, who had not won in their last 7 games, came back to the Emirates and did exactly the same thing! They showed the same aggression as they did last year and fought like Lions (which is little surprise as it worked for them last time) but Arsene Wenger is trying to tell us that he wasn’t prepared for that. “We were not ready for the challenges,” Le Prof told SKY Sports. “We were a bit in between and maybe we paid a heavy price for that.
“We were dominated in too many duels. We paid for it because we just didn’t start sharp enough. It happens sometimes and you are not punished but we today were punished.
“In the second-half we responded very well. We are a bit unlucky to lose the game and overall that sums it up well.”
We were unlucky to lose? Seriously? I reckon if I rewound the clock to the Watford game last season, we would have heard EXACTLY the same response from Wenger after the match. Surely the boss would have shown the players the video from last season to remind them what to expect from the same under-siege Watford side? How can the team not expect the same thing from the same opponent two years in a row? It was the same game, the same passion, and surprisingly (!) the same result.
There must have been something seriously wrong with the preparation for this game if they were surprised by Watford. And who is responsible for this preparation?
Darren N