By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal team: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Monreal, Torreira, Xhaka, Ramsey, Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette
On the beach: Leno, Lichtsteiner, Kolasinac, Guendouzi, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Welbeck.
Cech had to be attentive and come out on time to smother a ball before Watford could become dangerous. Lacazette being clipped in the penalty area but Taylor being Taylor from the start. Lacazette tried to stay on his feet giving Taylor the chance to wave it away. Not really much fluent football in the opening minutes from Arsenal with Watford trying to press us high. A dangerous shot from Watford from 17 meters out but one meter off target. Lacazette stealing the ball from the last defender and he tried to lob the keeper but the ball went well wide. What a big chance after 15 minutes so still 0-0 for now.
Watford replying with a shot that was diverted but a clear foul on an Arsenal defender so it wouldn’t have counted anyway. A looping cross from Bellerin is cleared just in front of Aubameyan at the far post. The match really is open and end to end stuff. A cross from Özil finds Monreal who heads in front of the goal but Lacazette just can’t touch the ball to put it over the line. Özil then sends Aubameyang away but the keeper rushed out to clear far outside his penalty area. Arsenal can just clear their line when the ball bounces around in their penalty area but they manage to clear it. Still 0-0 after 30 minutes.
Deeney lunging in studs showing against Monreal and he gets a deserved yellow card. Cech with an important stop in two times on a dangerously kicked free kick. First on the header and the smothering the ball on the rebound. A dangerous cross from Bellerin is missed by Aubameyang and then Xhaka has a shot that the keeper has to save for a corner.
Taylor being blind when Watford players get in the back of Arsenal players. Something he spotted every time when Arsenal did it. Torreira gets a yellow card for a challenge that was a bit late. Cech then kicks a long ball and goes down holding his hamstring. That looks like match over for him and I fear for a rupture. Leno comes in to action for the last seconds of the first half. Ramsey gets the captains armband and we go in at half time with the score 0-0. Not the best of Arsenal half let us hope we improve in the second half.
Arsenal win a few corners at the start of the first half and Holding just can’t make proper contact from close range. At the other end Deeney at the end of a free kick but a great stop from Leno to stop the goal bound effort. Watford from the start of the match using the block the keeper routine that is not allowed but with Taylor they can get away with it much to the surprise of Leno. Aubameyang on the right with a cross to Lacazette but he can’t direct his header. Xhaka with a high ball in his own penalty area and Leno can’t reach the ball with too many people in front of him but Arsenal can clear in the end. Still 0-0 after 60 minutes.
Mustafi gets a yellow card as he reacts a bit too furious when he thought we should have been given a corner. Ramsey is taken off and Iwobi comes on after 62 minutes. With the subbing of our keeper we can only make 2 changes so not easy for the coach. Xhaka tries to find Monreal but he couldn’t really make proper contact at the far post. Leno then with a great block when Watford suddenly find an opening and had a one on one. Excellent save that came falling out of the sky as Arsenal had 71% of possession so far in the second half. A minute later a shot from Watford sails just past the far post. Holding with a good block on a shot from Watford who have found new energy it seems. Still 0-0 after 75 minutes.
A free kick bounces around dangerously but Leno stops it somehow. A Watford player escapes but his ball goes off target with Leno making difficult enough for the striker to find the target. After 75 minutes Welbeck comes on for Aubameyang. Still 0-0.
Deeney challenges Torreira a bit late but off course no action from Taylor in the form of a second yellow card. Dissent from Watford player Doucoure results in a yellow card a bit later. Arsenal attack on the right flank. Bellerin to Iwobi who had switched flanks after the introdcution of Welbeck and Lacazette and a defender go in to the ball that ends up in the back of the net. GOAL! 1-0 to The Arsenal after 82 minutes. Replay looks it might have been an own goal. Lacazette his modest celebration indicating this also.
Welbeck wins the ball in midfield and the ball goes from Iwobi to Lacazette. The Frenchman crosses to the middle and Özil in on hand to put it against the back of the net. GOAL!! 2-0 to The Arsenal after 84 minutes.
Mr. Emery moving around as if he was taking part in the match himself. Mustafi kicking a clearance against the head of Deeney was a bit of extra fun. A good cross from the left by Watford is header well over. That was as the result of a counter from them. Arsenal players looking also determined to keep the clean sheet.
Arsenal playing out the time in the added time. Lacazette with a last effort but it went wide. One of the best Arsenal players for me was Rob Holding who cleared a lot of high balls. 7 wins in a row now.
Rose dives………………penalty.
Laca fouled, play on.
Taylor does his job…..the Riley bonus is on the way.
Ugggh, that was scary. Look at commentary, and it says Lacazette scores own goal. Now it says Watford’s Cathcart scored own goal. And then Mesut adds another goal!
COYG!
Listening to the commentary for a bit…it would seem that I am watching a different match…”Arsenal have to work harder!…really? They are putting a shift in…yes, they make mistakes but they are getting stuck in!
Exactly goinggoinggooner, it wasn’t the best match but they fought and got rewarded in the end. Nothing wrong with that.
Drats, spuds and Man$ity won. Well, we are in 5th at the moment, behind the spuds on goal difference.
Congratulations Gunners!
Who claims the clean sheet? Petr or Leno? 😉
I also thought that taking Ramsey off at first was a mistake by the coach as Watford suddenly played better. But when Welbeck also came on it changed the positions and suddenly we were unstoppable.
Very, very pleased with the win, but that NBC commentary has left me extremely pissed off in spite of the great win. That was one of the most disgustingly biased commentaries I have ever heard in my life. Just a few of his “highlights”;
– Suggested that the Arsenal fans were singing “Deeney, Deeney what’s the score” because they were in admiration of him and desperately need someone like that in our squad. “They could use a bit of Deeney” he says.
– Says that the manager won’t be happy with the work rate of our players (we were 2 nill up at this point, mind) and that he won’t have players like Ozil “meandering around”. Going on to criticise his contribution to the match; I guess scoring a goal doesn’t count?
– Says that it was a shame that a Watford player got a yellow card for dissent, yet criticised Mustfi earlier in the match for doing literally the exact same thing.
– Said that we “got away with one” after winning the match 2-0, only referring to Watfords missed chances and not the disallowed penalty or 1v1 that Lacazette missed.
– Started laughing and taking the piss out of our fans for doing “Oooooooo laaaays” towards the end of the match.
– Said that Torreria should have been sent off for supposedly kicking Deeney’s leg and then falling on the floor; on what planet for you blame the kicker when someone runs into them?!
– Made a list of all the teams that he believe we a worse than.
– Had literally nothing but praise to say for Watford and literally nothing but criticisms and insults for Arsenal throughout the entire match. That is no exaggeration; literally every single word that came out of his mouth was negative when it came to Arsenal.
I’d just watched Man United lose 3-1 and the difference in commentating is absolutely outstanding.
They can stick their “point of view” where the sun doesn’t shine, Jammy. If Liverpool don’t win today we are 4 points of the top spot. nah. eat that you rubbish pundits and writers
I think Leno should claim the clean sheet for his finishing the game at 2nd half for over 45 minutes without conceding. But if the judges decided to share the clean sheet 50 – 50 between Cech and Leno, I have no axe to grind on that. Because Cech also saved Arsenal from conceding to Watford in the 1st half when they have the best of attacking moments in the match.
Final score: 2-0. A home win to Arsenal against Watford. For this commendable success in the match by the Gunners against the Hornets at the Ems today’s afternoon, that means us Gooners and the Gunners too including Emery have every reason to give glory to God for His given us victory today over Watford in the tough hard fought match in the PL which Arsenal won with 10 minutes to the end of the match remaining.
Will Tottenham Hotspur pull haywire with Arsenal in the table this season? I believe at some sages into the season’s campaign, Arsenal will pull clear and far in the table from them.
Does S S A know that the owner of this site is an atheist?
This was a good match to watch. We must give credit to Watford. They had some good chances and came to play football. That Taylor gave them a lot of wiggle room with his calls is not their fault. Arsenal, too, played well. Despite the commentary that I heard which was all about how good Watford looked, I thought we did well. Our boys got stuck in and challenged Watford AND I thought our defence looked very solid. There were chances for Watford but no periods of scrambly, where is everybody and the dog? plays in our box. Whenever we played it out from the back and the ball was kicked into touch off of a Watford player, the commentators would say that we looked uneasy. I did not get that feeling at all. Some passes will go astray, but there were no howlers in our own end.
I thought Lacazette did well, despite missing the net on a breakaway. And the Iwobi and Welbeck substitutions, especially Iwobi who was in on both goals mad a big difference.
Make no miistake, Watford is good side. I think we have a higher ceiling than them but they are a tidy side and we beat them and we deserved to beat them.
Either way, it’s good to see that Iwobi seems to finally be fulfilling his true potential, now the questions remains whether he can do it on a consistent basis or not (the difference between a great player and a special player). Let’s just hope that god takes time off giving children cancer and focuses on improving Iwobi, because we all know absolutely no credit should be given to the player, as it’s all down to god the Gooner magicing him better.
God how the pundits and media must be disappointed because AFC under Emery are playing very well and winning 5 games in a row!
WOO HOO , HOO ! Another hard fought 3 points. Well done guys.
Like Jamny says, that so calked expert must be an idiot for claiming that Torreira should have received a yellow card for ‘fouling’ Deeny !
Am hoping some fool comes on here to defend and sing praises of English refs!
Anyway, Up the Gunnets !
UP THE GUNNERS ! Sorry!
And speaking of flinging shit around,…
A new vacuum-cleaner salesman knocked at the door….
A lady opened it. Before she could speak… The salesman rushed into the living room and emptied a bag of cow dung on the carpet.
Salesman: – Madam, if I couldn’t clean this up in the next 3 mins with my new powerful vacuum cleaner, I will EAT all this!!
Lady: Do you need Chili Sauce with that?
Salesman: – Why Madam?
Lady: – Because there’s no electricity in the house…!!!
MORAL: – “Gather all resources before working on any project and committing to the client… & over smartness can be deadly.”..
Walter thank you so much for your report. Just back home from the match which I went to with Ian and family (you will recall Ian – he has the same surname as you but spelled the English way) and a great day out it was for all of us.
Part way through the game I was pondering who this Watford team reminded me of, and then I realised. Of course it was Bolton of old. Every trick in the book to play for time and distract the referee throughout. And reading the early reports, every newspaper has fallen for it.
The feeling among my fellow season ticket holders close by was that Ramsey won’t be missed and that we are building a very positive and successful squad.
We’re hoping to get to the Under 23 game at Leicester on monday. My report won’t be at your standards but I’ll do my best.
@ Jammy,
This is the second time I am reading your remarks on the faith/belief of others and at the same time doing so in a disrespectful manner. Kindly focus on the subject at hand without making your put downs seem so insulting. You are free to hold or not hold any faith/belief but please steer clear of drawing unnecessary attention to your offensive comments on what others hold dear.
No-one seems to have mentioned how well Holding played.
When Sokratis is back will this be the new CB pairing.
COYG
Tony
I listened to the game on Arsenal.com and they had the same view as you regarding Rambo.
If/when he leaves, this will allow Ozil to play as proper No.10 with Iwobi, Welbz, Smith-Rowe and Mkhi to play on the wings and create a more balanced side.
The Torreira/Xhaka combo is starting to look good with Matteo as back-up.
Hope that Orc Deeney recognised that our Uruguyan does have cojones!!
COYG
Without becoming over-excited, I hope all true followers of Arsenal FC have noticed how Unai Hendry, quietly and steadily, is leaving his mark on the business for which the Club is famous.
So-called pundits have forecast that he needs time and a few transfer windows in order to achieve his goal and no doubt they are right.
The fact remains though, that the players are already beginning to bond in a way that suggests a very bright horizon.
Tony, I leaned forward to speak to another supporter, and my words were that the match reminded me of the days of playing Bolton, Blackburn and more recently Stoke. I got really angry at how this referee treats us, just the same as Graham Poll and referee Durkin used to do.
Cabbage Patch Cup draw:
Burton vs Nottingham Forest
Chelsea vs Derby
Middlesbrough vs Crystal Palace
West Ham vs Tottenham
Leicester vs Everton/Southampton
Arsenal vs Blackpool
Bournemouth vs Norwich
Manchester City vs Fulham
If I read that right. Looks like we are home to Blackpool, and the spuds get State Aid.
Bobome
Entitled to them or not, if people didn’t keep ramming there beliefs down other peoples thoats there would be no need for a response, polite, rude or otherwise,would there.
I mean how do you tell somebody politely that there talking outof there backside?
Or do you think religion is beyond questioning?
How do think it would go down with SAA if I came on here and blamed God everytime we lost a game, or a player got injured ?
Funny how it’s ‘praise be to God’ when something good happens but just ‘God works in mysterious ways’ when something bad happens.
Religion is an emotive subject, so if you don’t want an emotive response don’t bring it into the debate.
3 points on the board to take us 4 from the top.
Unfortunate for Cech to the benefit of the team and Leno in my opinion, injuries now there’s a thing at this stage of your career vying for number 1 with a solid understudy waiting to take his chance.
Fate intercedes, Ramsey in again and with the armband, post accounts sale and prized asset or for liquidation like the rest?
The squad although not playing wonderfully well continue to prove the value of our firepower. Next up a European tie to solidify the likelihood of progression before a testing away trip access London to face Fulham before a stern examination at home to Lecester before we face Liverpool post trip to Lisbon.
A game to open up the title race and establish contender credentials, with United flattering to deciece and Spurs already looking devoid or the creativity required to unlock teams. Favourable head to head results against the remaining 3 top 6 teams yet to be faced could give Unai and his Arsenal a much needed shot in the arm before the year closes.
Another Ozil goal and Lacazette again at the heart of the victory, Torreira features twice from the start as Arsenal get back to back clean sheets on the league.
With the possible departures of Koscielny and Mustarfi looming large, Holdings run of form is welcome and not so unexpected.
A starting birth could be possible upon the return of Sokratis in what could prove a fruitful partnership. With Macraponos continuing his development in the under 23’s and Chambers on loan looking for first team action. The future looks bright.
Let’s hope Ramsey opts to stay in shall we. Alexis and he and Wenger, all is not well in the Emirates.
It looked to me as though Deeney deliberately put his knee into Torreria with intent to hurt him. The bloke is an animal.
U know who @9:23 PM
Yes, let’s thank Gazidis. Oh, we can’t, he’s scarpered. I forgot.
Does that imply that everyone ought to stay in one job all their working lives and never move on?
Nitram,
‘Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone…’ What I am speaking out against is the patent intolerance that we may all atimes show towards the Faith/Belief, or a lack theroof, of others, at least on this blog. I am sure there is no one here who would object to the observance of decorum in speeches or in writing nor politeness nor to respect towards one another. For we are all, first persons deserving of human dignity and then secondly, AFC faithfuls.
That emotiveness, being brought into the debate, is in itself the problem on both sides. “ … two wrongs cannot make a right…”
Seems no one has noticed that so far Emery seems to get all the substitutions right.
Bobome Personally I don’t have a problem if people have faith or not. My in-laws are practising Christians but never try to push their beliefs on to me and I would never impose my atheists views upon them. The point is if I was to come on here constantly blaming God for all Arsenal’s ills, would that be acceptable? I don’t think it would. Similarly I believe crediting God with anything good that happens is equally unacceptable. As I say, having faith is fine but is a football blog really the place to be expressing it ? I don’t think so and I am equally entitled to that view.
Bobome – I find it equally as insulting when somebody takes the credit away from a players tireless hard work and effort, placing all of that credit in the hands of this supposed god. SAA gives god credit for the positive things, so why is there only an issue with me when I give god credit for the negative things? You can’t have one without the other.
I’m not the one who brought religion into this discussion and tried to shove my beliefs down everyone’s throats, telling them that they should all praise god for what Arsenal are achieving, so why is it only me that you are criticising for airing my views? And airing them is all that I did, unlike SAA who is actively telling people what they should and shouldn’t believe in.
Stevo, add Fatty Blind Steve Dunn to that list. The man who second yellowed Petit for a Gallic gesture at a linesman and missed Henchos clear handball red card in the cup final.
Nitram and Jammy,
Your responses have thrown more light on the debate. We are all better informed as a result. It should make it much easier for us all to have a better focused interaction on the performances of AFC. Thanks.