By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal made one change compared to the team that started our last PL match against Manchester United.
Koscielny started in the place of Gabriel. Gabriel wasn’t even on the bench so probably he is injured. For the rest the team was unchanged.
Arsenal team that started: Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Cazorla, Alexis, Ozil, Walcott
The subs: Macey, Debuchy, Gibbs, Arteta, Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Chambers.
Referee gives a foul when Gomes spills the ball but it looked to me he jumped in to his own defenders. Walcott with a header then but Gomes with the save. Arsenal with most of the ball and Watford leaning back from the start. Sanchez with a shot from distance but again Gomes with a good save. Deeney then with a shot for Watford but Cech also well awake and punched it away. Theo twice offside in a row, the second one was very close. 0-0 after 15 minutes.
Watford then almost got a shooting chance but Bellerin prevented Watford having a shot at goal 10 meters out. Deeney then got away on the flank but Koscielny wit a great interception. Watford trying to play a bit more forward now. Some Arsenal players trying to dribble themselves past their opponents too much for the moment, I think we need to pass our way more than dribble. Sanchez with a great pass to Ramsey but Ramsey couldn’t direct the ball in the goal just before the half hour mark. Ighalo suddenly away when Koscielny misses the ball but his shot goes well wide. A bit later he escapes again but Bellerin picks up his cross. 0-0 after half an hour.
Capoue slaps Alexis in the face but only gets a talking too…. Ah as usual…refs sees it (why else talk about it) and does nothing… Bellerin with a run on the right and a low inviting cross but a Watford defender can clear it. Corner for Arsenal given by Özil and Koscielny just misses the target. Ramsey then falls over and a Watford players acccidently touches his head with his shoes, Ramsey stays down but the ref doesn’t stop the match as he should do with a possible head injury. Watford also decides not to play the ball out. Not really nice sporting behaviour.
Cech then has to come out to defend a long ball that fell between Per and him but the ball bounced of his upper body while Watford claim a handball. A strange situation then when Ramsey is alone on his way to Gomes but the ref calls the play back for a foul on Theo? Or was Ramsey offside? If not a big mistake. Ramsey a bit later with the last shot of the first half but he blasts it over the crossbar. 0-0 after 45 minutes.
Nyom gets a deserved yellow card for time wasting when he took the ball with him to prevent Arsenal to take a quick throw in. Arsenal trying to pass their way round the Watford defence but PrÖdl can clear for a corner. Both teams having better spells mixed with not that good spells. Ref joins in with not giving a foul when Özil is pulled back and loses the ball. Mertesacker gets a deserved yellow card for a foul on Ighalo. Still 0-0 after 60 minutes.
Capoue goes down in the Arsenal penalty area but the ref wants nothing of it. Arsenal ggo up the other end and a combination between Alexis-Santi is given to Özil who is brought down by the last defender in the penalty area but the ball goes to Alexis who puts it in the net. GOAL!!! 0-1 to The Arsenal after 63 minutes.
Giroud enters the field in the place of Walcott before Watford start again and Gomes gets a yellow card for protesting something with the ref. Arsenal trying to add to the score and push Watford back in their half. Ramsey with an attempted pass that ends up in the feet of Özil who drags it bag in front of Giroud who with his first touch puts it in the net. GOAL!!! 0-2 to The Arsenal after 68 minutes.
Arsenal playing the ball around at free will now and Watford chasing an unreachable ball. Bellerin has a great run and puts in front of Ramsey and his shot that was going in gets a deflection but it ends up at the back of the net. GOAL!!! 0-3 to the Arsenal after 73 minutes. When The Arsenal is on fire we are too hot to handle. Nice to see Bellerin getting an assist after he started rather nervous in this match but grew to his usual level the longer the match went on.
Alexis almost with another goal, brought down by Gomes but the ball ran out of play and the ref ignored it. That was the last contribution from Alexis as he went off and The Ox came on in his place. Özil also made way and Arteta came in his place with 10 minutes to this double substitution.
Arsenal completely dominating and after a corner a powerful header from Giroud is kept out by Gomes with a great save. Arsenal looking to score even more goals but also with a good eye on the defensive organisation. Arsenal getting corner after corner in this moment. Also great to see how Santi every time when Watford went forward he sprinted back to help in the organisation. Amazing performance once again from the little Spanjard.
The not so far away supporters this time making themselves well heard as usual. Another good and solid win against a Watford team that did all they could to stop us from playing our game but in the end our talent paid off and we got a well deserved win. Another clean sheet also and another 3-0 win. And just as against Manchester United our changes of pace killed the opponents.
Well done Gunners!
PS: This title was changed at the last second as this was what a pundit in Belgium said right after the match. I kind a liked it.
Composed performance. Everyone tracked back. Good 3 points.
It is not the slap – its the nails that scratch. Jones is a PGMO cheat. He displays the full array of pseudo fouls & selective blindness. The first goal should have been followed by a card to the ‘last defender’ despite not giving a penalty. Jones gets away with his reputation for Riley by avoiding fair officiating despite the obvious Arsenal rout.
Great win. First half wasn’t the best performance but we were wearing them down. Second half we destroyed Watford. Only concern is we still lose a lot of the ball in dangerous places. If it were a top team we could have been in trouble.
Happy to see Ramsay finally scored after so many chances, hopefully he will be on a scoring run like Alexis.
Credit to the Arsenal fans at the ground, can hear them loud and proud on TV. Let keep up that level of support at The Emirates when we take on Bayern Munich.
A good win. Three goals, three points, a clean sheet, sand in the mouth for the aaa herd… Is there a better way to celebrate the weekend? Well done boys, good job Mr. Wenger, congratulations to all Gooners. To those who still doubt our ability to win the premiership title this season, keep doubting; your shock will be more devastating to you come May 2016. To Walter, thank you for this piece of beauty, and so quickly too.
First, Capoue and Coqulin were coming together outside the penalty area, and capoue was On the ground inside it, but if Jones wanted to give it, then it should have been freekick.
Capoue, like all other players in this match, were running for the foul instead of the ball, watch mert yellow, and how their player was still heading forward to get foul, while the ball was drifting to the left.
In addition, deeney and co where really trying to be unfairly physical, while we were not allowed to, even within the rules.
On a good side, the first match changing goal was a counter in which they were trying to cheat on.
Another sweet win.
At the beginning of the season, goals simply didn’t want to come.
But when you play like that, you will win most of the time.
Starts of Ozil, Sanchez and Cazorla are shining bright.
Bellerin is real diamond. Such important interventions in own penalty area, such beutiful technique and eye for the pass. He is the one who created most big chances in the whole EPL. A right back(sic!)
Monreal is such an unsung hero. Playing so well so consistently is an art
Ospina had shoulder problem so WA not on the bench, and Gabriel was ill (sick) so was not on the bench as well. As mentioned by beIN sports football experts.
No injuries fingers crossed
Good win. Took a while for some tired legs to get into the game, but eventually put a stubborn team to the sword.
We do have some special players
Thanks for the quick write up.
Don’t know who was MOTM but I would of gone for Bellerin.
Santi was indeed great. In fact they all played well. But I just thought Hector edged it.
To be honest it doesn’t really matter. As Wenger would always say, it’s the team that counts, and they played very well.
COYG
Watford were very physical (mainly legally) and worked their sock off without the ball. The last 10 minutes showed that as so many of their players started getting cramp.
Theo had a few opportunities to run at their defence but didn’t take them in a game which really didn’t suit his game.
Arron really put in ‘A shift’ and It’s good to see him on the score-sheet finally.
But Santi made the team ‘tick’ today. Others played well but he was supreme. I really want him to score one soon!
A very good patient win against a team that ran themselves silly trying to close us down, but in the end couldn’t do so. Some very poor decisions from Jones, but fortunately we were able to defeat the PGMO and the opposition.
This was a very good all round team performance.
Well done the team, the manager & the away fans!
A few jottings about the game…
1. I thought Jones’ failings were not too obvious today. A card should have been issued after our first goal because otherwise a penalty would surely have been awarded.
2. I pay the usual tribute to our loyal and vociferous away supporters. They really do add a new dimension to the team.
3. Ozil gets better every time he dons an Arsenal shirt. His intelligent, probing passes are a joy to watch, but you have to look for them. Blink and they are missed. He is a real behind-the-scenes playmaker.
4. Giroud’s one-touch goal was what he does best. Give him the ball on the ground and ask him to do something with it and he’s not in Walcott’s class. But as a pure finisher with head or feet, he earns his corn. 😉
I’m getting moderated!
I got moderated as well!!!
Me too.
Don’t think it’s personal.
Must be a glitch.
My comment about Moderation is in moderation. 🙂
Moderation has gone mad 🙂 🙂
A great result against a very stubborn side. Do we have the best defenseman in the league on paper?
Andy Mack – which law makes Watfords ‘physical’ legal? They pulled, barged, pushed & dived! Which of that was legal.
You cannot make physical contact with an opponent without first making contact with the ball. If you do, it is a foul. At least that is what the Laws of the Game state. The Laws of PGMO & probably Andy Mack allow for contact before getting the ball. The only time contact can occur before the ball is in a run towards the ball & shoulder to shoulder contact occurs. The Jones Laws allow for Watford players to back into Arsenal defenders but not the other way round. The number of pulls on the shoulder by Watford players in order to get at the ball was an embarassment.
The PGMO do not get moderated!!!
nicky,
I’m afraid I disagree re Jones’ manner of officiating. I lost count of the shirt pulls and barges into our players. Capoue should have been sent off for that elbow in Koscielny’s face, the dive for the penalty should have been “rewarded” with a yellow, plus their keeper should have walked twice, after he fouled Ozil and Alexis in his box. Jones did everything he could to encourage Watford’s rough play and stop us from getting forward. Oh, and Ramsey escaping one on one with the keeper at the end of the first half: there was no replay shown to conclusively demonstrate he was offside, so why the ref called back the game, it’s a mystery to me.
Florian,
Dont forget the Capoue slap on Sanchez face. Now if Sanchez reacted and got sent off, people will blame him for falling for it!!!
And Deeney push and pull all over the place, worse than fellaini. His first shot was through that, after someone fouled Bellerin in the air.
I was always a rocker. The mods are still getting thier way!!
It sometimes happen that the automatic moderation doesn’t work and on such moments even the regular posters go in moderation. Sorry about that but not much we can do about that.
My impression of the first half is that we were all over the place offensively; we weren’t sure what was going to work. That is a communication thing; they were trying and forcing Wallford(sic)to defend but not really penetrating due to hesitations, etc.
Second half, much better but there were some curious decisions by the ref. All in all a solid performance by our team if not by the team with the whistles.
Florian at 9:48 pm
a) “Capoue should have been sent off for that elbow in Koscielny’s face….”
b)”plus their keeper should have walked twice, after he fouled Ozil and Alexis in his box.”
Spot on.
a) Given recent events, a definite Red card.
b) If the foul on Alexis wasn’t a Penalty and possibly red card, I don’t know what is.
Both hardly worth a mention on SKY.
Look, as much as I agree with menace that it should be irrelevant whether we win lose or draw, as to how we highlight the ineptitude and bias of referees against us, normaly I just cant be bothered to go there when we win.
It just seems pointless, churlish even.
But it has to be said that a and b where 2 terrible decisions, and definitely should be mentioned, at least by us if nobody else.
Bare in mind that Everything is good for you in moderation!
Menace, It is a contact sport but with limits. There was plenty of shoulder to shoulder contact both ways, it’s part of the game but they were a bit bigger than TW, NM & HB so it looked worse than it was. The same can sometimes be said in reverse when Kozzer, Gabby and Per go for a ball. They were plenty of sly digs and ankle taps as well as quite a few minor fouls (which is why I said mainly legal instead of completely legal) but overall it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as some opposition. The Ref could have cleaned it up easily but that’s not the PMGO way. As Jones proved when he let the game continue when Arron had a possible head injury, but then stopped Arron when through on Goal, for a foul on TW.
@Florian,
I can only speak as I find.
Maybe I fail to detect the sly shirt-pulling and loose elbowing that goes on. And possibly the fact that we won, tends (in my failing eyes) to dull the lapses of the match official.
I need hardly add, of course, that I fully accept your summation of what went on, on the field. 😉
Personally I thought the ref had a good game pretty fair to both sides .
Stan The Man
Yes , it was a very good win but Arsenal title challenge will depend more on getting results against clubs in the top ten of the league table.
Getting results against teams like Watford hasn’t been a problem for Arsenal. 17 wins out of last nineteen games against promoted clubs with only two draws.
But I agree , it would be sweet to see the negative nellies eat the humble pie , if we went on to win the league.
I have been on record saying that Arsenal could do it this season , without any signings( let alone four players suggested by Henry and others) but it was dependent on two factors:
Injuries and our players taking the next step in the natural progression as a team.
People who say Arsene Wenger has lost his ability to motivate his players, are missing the point.
The extra motivation has to come from within the players.
If you played for any manager for a season or two, then you as a player have heard everything that manager had to say on subject on football, teamwork and staying focused.
If you can’t get motivated enough then it’s on you.
I think this squad has it within them to do it.
Cech made some interesting comments. He said after an international break players come back at different times and they only have one day together before they play. This could have contributed to our less good first half. But as he also said, we were patient and we really stepped it up in the second half.
Than,s Walter, will test of I am out of moderation now!
Florian – we see the same game as others yet we see exactly the same poor PGMO cheats. It must be something these others are smoking!!! LOL The Judge must have his wig on back to front!!
@Menace
I’m with you and Florian!
What a masterclass 2nd half from the team.
The AAA and the media honking why didnt we buy an outfield player must be licking there wounds after 11 goals in 3 matches.
Thanks for the write-up Walter!
This was a tricky game, and made to look much easier then it was in the second half – because we remained patient,focused and composed in front of goal.
How the ref did not book Jones is beyond belief!!
Ref defo is a PIGMOB representative who failed in his task – whilst we took 3 points!
COYG onto the Germans!
Seems we were saving energy(for CL fixture) until Watford tired.
Anyway a good composed win.
Next stop Bayern.
COYG.
We are going to win the first leg. 🙂 🙂
Lewan who? we are Arsenal.
“How the ref did not book Jones is beyond belief!!” meant to say how he didn’t send him off (last player)…
Arsene Wenger got the selection absolutely right. It’s beginning of the season and any athlete will know that it’s a good time to push yourself to the limit. I honestly don’t understand why some comments suggest, or in some cases demand the boss to rest the players. Have you exercise before? You only stop when you absolutely needed to. That’s how you build your stamina throughout the years. Comparing self and Arsenal players are ridiculous. They are physically super fit people, they don’t tire or cramp easily like you and me. In fact, the way the team destroyed Watford was not physically but with pure skills. Did you see the triangle passes yesterday? Absolutely amazing. Don’t do pro things if you are not a pro, plz.
By the way, I didn’t even know Coq is pretty good in footwork. Our destroyer with a touch of class. Awesome!
Great result. I thought (as a referee) the quality of the refereeing was awful. We were just too good for them. Will be interesting to see the refereeing report. An incident noone has mentioned not even the tv – just before a free kick was given to gomes in the 2nd or 3rd minute – Per was flattened, should have been a penalty! another one – first half Coq was being pulled back, Jones played advantage for Watford and they had one of their very few shots at goal.
OT, I was sorry to see that Howard Kendall had died.
Anyway RIP Howard.
I want to pose a question:
Are Arsenal performances/players measured in a different way to everyone else?
From The Mail on Sunday
RIATH AL-SAMARRAI AT VICARAGE ROAD:
“What a glorious, peculiar mess from Arsenal, that club with a personality split somewhere between brilliance and desires to self sabotage. This was another of those days where Arsene Wenger’s side simply could not decide if they were fantastically gifted or plain daft. As ever they settled on a compromise, coughing up so many mistakes in the first half that they should have trailed, but recovering with three goals from Alexis Sanchez, Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey in the second.”
Against who/what is he making this Judgement?
Are we the only team never allowed to make a mistake?
Surely the judgement on whether we are “Gifted or plain daft” is made over a period of time, and not over one half of football. A half of football by the way in which we only conceded ONE shot on target against us, and in fact that was it for the entire match.
This season we have the equal best defence, along with Spurs, with just 7 goals conceded.
So far this season we have conceded an average of just 10.9 shots against per game. The 3rd best in the PL behind:
Man City: 8.7
Man Utd: 9.6
You can look further afield:
Barcelona: 12
Real Madrid: 12
Not only that, but when you look at individual and team statistics our back four, as a unit, and individually, come out very well in the ratings.
It seems the likes of Mertesaker are given no latitude at all to make even a single error without that undermining his entire game.
Much the same happened to Ospina. Statistics over half a season to match anyones and yet one error and he’s crap. Although to be fair, even without that error he was already derided as sub standard.
(For statistics relating to this I browsed Whoscored.com)
All of this suggests to me that for a team that has a manager that doesn’t do tactics, and players that just go into training to have a laugh, that maybe we ARE doing something right at the back, and are perhaps not quite as ‘daft’ as some would try to portray us.
It seems to me if we don’t play offensively like Barcelona and score 4 plus goals every match, whilst at the same time defensively parking the bus and not conceding any chances, then we are falling short.
To me our players individually, and the team as a whole, are judged in a completely different way to everyone else.
Apparently Jones was seen heading up the M1 still giving Watford advantage after they fouled!! He was being followed by a specsavers van with flashing green light. Damn this liverbird spliff is good. 😉
Cracking win.
I joined the match after about 30 mins, in a bad place as a Welsh Arsenal fan, and the way Jones was reffing it didn’t help my mood one bit.
Moving from a distinctly familiar honourable Welsh defeat to a ref up to his tricks while a crowd call us cheats as their team are allowed to gain advantages through crap refereeing was none too pleasant. Thankfully, the breakthrough, an excellent spell of football, job done.
As usual, I doubt myself a bit in those circumstances as the happiness flows- was the ref really so bad, or have I gone wrong as a supporter and now see things which aren’t there, from the ref, when games are in the balance? Displacement activity, maybe.
I think there might be a bit of that with me- or at least that the difference is too great between how I tolerate ‘same old Arsenal always cheating’ when we’re winning and when we’re not- but mainly, no, the ref was poor yet again yesterday.
I’m actually in the territory, deep in the territory, where my total distrust of these officials, and my loathing of the media and the lies they tell, ensures it barely makes any sense for me to keep watching football.
Winning despite that doesn’t half disguise it well, or wash it away on the day, sweetening it even, and leaving me questioning whether I’ve lost the plot when it comes to judging referees and so the game itself…but i really don’t think so.
Jones was bad yesterday. Ignoring head injuries, stopping us playing a quick free kick when there was absolutely no reason to do so, opting for the familiar talking to, with a hard-to-categorise (embarrassed?) smile, when someone has committed a blatant foul right in front of him. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t going to award the pen for the foul on Ozil either.
It has to cost us quite a few points this year and that makes it harder to take than ever, because the team for me is good enough for a great shot at the title but surely not 5-10 points better than the rest, which is a conservative estimate of what the tilting will cost us.
Oh well, I have to get my head right, and sort of psyche myself up so that even if the reffing is crap and it costs us I don’t let it piss me off too much (always try to do so, but it aint easy), and at least the rugby world cup is only once every four years!
I’ll finish on a real positive,though: I think these refs force our players to improve. Coquelin is the shining example.
Capoue was widely praised during yesterday’s match, and how much better your chances as a dm of having a good day are when you are allowed to get away with a lot of grappling and grabbing as you do your work, from a ref with seemingly no interest in totting up your fouls. Even Chamack- Chamack!- got the benefit of this last year and was wonderfully effective in his midfield role against us with about 10 fouls before the card came. (I doubt Chamack ever had such a good day in midfield again, and Capoue will find it harder to have a good day next time he plays.)
Well, Coquelin can’t have that- the ref who was perceived to have let him get away with too much remains banished to the championship (while Dean, proven to have messed up terribly, doesn’t miss a single game)- and it is surely contributing to him becoming sharper and sharper.
So, for once, thank you pgmol! Fuck you very much.
Rich – Good comment. Good evidence. Great conclusion.
Rich
Fantastic post, yet again.
One word for away support… Awesome. (If only I was skilled enough in English)
We have the best away support in the league… I think Europe aswell.
@ Kenneth Widmerpool -October 18, 2015 at 10:01 am – There was a time in the early seventies , that the trio of Kendall , Ball and Harvey were considered the best midfield in the English First Division .
Alan Ball’s move to Arsenal broke them up.
” Stand up , be bold , be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. ”
Swami Vivekananda
Bricks, got to admit I didnt know that,football doesnt really come in my consciousness until 78. I only knew HK as a manager and my mate and I had a soft spot for Everton in the 80s, as his Dad was a milkman, and he got some tickets to go to the 84 Milk Cup Final, and we ened up down at the Everton end, and were shocked how friendly they were,(but were glad as neither of us could stand Liverpool FC and didnt want to be at that end of the ground)on what was a cold rainy day. 00 at FT both teams did a lap of honour, and “Merseyside,Merseyside,Merseyside” echoed around Wembley, it was unforgettable and I still recall walking behind and listening to a kid on the way home saying it couldnt happpen between London clubs, and although it was irritating to hear it was probably right.
Different world now, Liverpools rebuilt and orange,no big days out,Thatcher won,no milkmen anymore or if so are just hanging on,Brookside and Scully are a faint memory and theres 50,000 channels on tv,Degsy drives a 60 grand car and Arsenal beat Watford.
Cheers for the info.
RIP Howard Kendall.
Jambug,
Riath Al Samarrai is an Arsenal-hating prick. Have you read any of his other journalistic pieces?
Utter fecal matter. But, hey, all you need is to criticize Arsenal to get appointed as a journo.
Ray from Norfolk Virginia
“But, hey, all you need is to criticize Arsenal to get appointed as a journo”
Exactly
Jambug
October 17, 2015 at 8:12 pm
“Don’t know who was MOTM but I would of gone for Bellerin.”
I didn’t get much accord with this but it seems Adrian Clark, who does ‘the breakdown’ on Arsenal player and obviously talks a lot of sense, agrees. Not that I’m bragging or anything 🙂