CLASS usually tells. For an hour, nothing-to-lose Watford gave imperious but easily discombobulated Arsenal a fright, if not quite a heart-stopping scare. All it took was a goal and when Arsenal’s easy- on-the-eye Alexis Sanchez neatly guided it over Watford’s Heurelho Gomes, Arsenal stopped looking scared, started looking imperious and in winning the fifth of their last six league games, cruised to second place in the Premier League.
It sounds simple and three goals in 12 giddy second-half minutes meant it was simple in the end, but in defeat — in heavy defeat — Watford did enough to show they may yet last the pace. In contrast, in victory — in heavy victory — Arsenal showed how yet again they can be knocked out of their stride by inferiors. Still, for all that the winning margin was three goals, Arsenal ground out this victory.
Perhaps circumstances and David Ospina’s soapy fingers have forced Arsène Wenger’s hand, but, as he restated afterwards, the manager now apparently believes that the Premier League is Arsenal’s most important competition. And just to prove it, Wenger rested nobody against little Watford, despite Bayern Munich jetting in for a midweek Champions League rendezvous and he hinted, perhaps disingenuously, that Mesut Ozil and Sanchez may not face the Bavarians.
“To win today was vital to stay in touch,” Wenger explained. “Now we have to do something special against Bayern.”
Having swatted Manchester United’s flimsy challenge last time out, the international break was hardly Arsenal’s next move of choice. But they counted out their international players and they counted the same number back in again. Despite Sanchez returning at 2am on Friday morning after scoring three goals in Chile’s victories over Brazil and Peru, Wenger’s only starting XI change was voluntary: Laurent Koscielny ousting Gabriel after returning from injury.
Advertisement
“I was tempted to rest Sanchez,” admitted Wenger, “but he was sharp in training, there was no medical problem and you don’t want to interrupt someone who’s in that kind of scoring form.”
Watford cannot bask in such luxurious playing resources, but they too survived the international break intact.
As is so often their way, Arsenal posed little real danger — at one fluffy point, Aaron Ramsey back-heeled in the penalty area at the very moment an old-fashioned wallop would have put them ahead — but if Arsenal were as sublime as oysters in the middle third, Watford were the unsettling grit everywhere else.
Sensing that Arsenal could perhaps be more powderpuff than keeping their powder dry, Watford abandoned all thoughts of humility, assumed midfield hegemony and took control. Captain Troy Deeney dispossessed a lackadaisical Francis Coquelin to sting Petr Cech’s palms and Watford ought to have scored their second home goal of the season when Chelsea loanee Nathan Ake unleashed him. Formerly free-scoring but goalless since April, Deeney was hoist by his own nervy petard when, rather than shoot, he squared and Koscielny cleared. They would come no closer.
Just as they had in the first period, Arsenal made the early running in the second. Walcott continued to drift to the right, but both Cazorla and Ramsey filled the Olivier Giroud-shaped gap in the centre. The opener finally came, of all things, after a Watford penalty appeal when Capoue was felled – fairly – by Coquelin. Arsenal stormed upfield and Cazorla freed Mesut Ozil in the six yards box. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he was felled – possibly unfairly – by Ake. The loose ball fell to Sanchez who delightfully beat Gomes.
Advertisement
Six minutes later, Arsenal were out of the woods and out of sight. Sanchez and Ramsey linked in the penalty area: the latter’s shot was deflected off Craig Cathcart to Ozil, who squared for the recently introduced Giroud. The unmarked French striker blasted home and Watford were broken.
“What happened after the first hour was difficult to accept,” said Flores. “We’re finding it difficult to score goals. These are things to address.”
There was more to come when former Watford loanee Hector Bellerin hurtled down the right and found the unmarked Ramsey, whose far from coruscating shot took a deflection off Ikechi Anya and bobbled beyond Gomes for the Wales mainstay’s first Arsenal goal of the season.
It would have been four had not Gomes saved splendidly from Giroud after a vicious Cazorla corner. No matter: enough was enough.
Star Man: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)
Advertisement
Watford: Gomes 5, Nyom 5 (Berghuis 69min, 5), Prodl 7, Cathcart 7, Ake 6, Anya 6 (Paredes 81min, 4), Capoue 8, Watson 4, Abdi 6 (Ibarbo 75min, 5), Ighalo 6, Deeney 6
Arsenal: Cech 6, Bellerin 7, Mertesacker 6, Koscielny 6, Monreal 6, Cazorla 7, Coquelin 6, Ramsey 6, Ozil 7 (Arteta 81min, 5), Sanchez 8 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 81min, 5), Walcott 5 (Giroud 64min, 7)