Premier League: Arsenal Squeak Past Watford and Jump into 4th Place

Arsenal managed to squeak past 10-man Watford1-0 somewhat undeservedly on Monday, in a match that was crucial to both sides in the Premier League table.

Heading into their clash with Watford on Monday, Arsenal were coming off a 1-0 loss to Everton at Goodison Park last weekend, in a fixture that once again highlighted the awful away form that the club has had over the past 2 seasons. While the Gunners are one of the most formidable teams in the Premier League at home, they are 10th in the away table and often fail to cope with the intensity of such fixtures. In this match however, Unai Emery dropped 2 of his players that tend to struggle mightily in these types of matches- Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette. Arsenal are in the thick of the top 4 race, while Watford are still in the hunt for that coveted 7th spot that would earn them European football. Both sides have overachieved this season.

Many were expecting Watford to run away with a win in this match considering Arsenal’s poor away form, and the first 10 minutes of this fixture certainly strengthened many people’s beliefs, as the Hornets put the pressure on Arsenal’s backline and maintained pressure in the final 3rd. It took a really awful Ben Foster mistake to undo the hard work that Javi Gracia’s men had put in, as Aubameyang pressed Foster into a mistake, with his clearance bouncing back into his own net off of the Gabonese striker, who took his goals tally up to 18 with the goal. Things went from bad to worse just 2 minutes after that, as Troy Deeney elbowed Lucas Torreira up high and earned a straight red card. Although it was certainly worthy of the card, the fact that Torreira stands at just 5’5 made the incident a bit more amusing, unless you’re a Watford supporter of course.

Despite being a man up for the rest of the match, Arsenal never took control and continued to look shaky at the back. One could even argue that Watford created better chances than Arsenal did throughout the rest of the match, with Bernd Leno standing tall to ?=]keep them out. Emery’s tactics twisted and turned throughout the match, switching from a back 3 to a back 4 multiple times and swapping around many of his midfielders in particular. At one point, Henrikh Mkhitaryan was even playing at right-back!

Ainsley Maitland-Niles was the late hero for Arsenal, as his last ditch tackle prevented a sure Andre Gray goal, that would have deflated the Gunners’ top 4 hopes.

In the end, Arsenal managed to pick up the victory despite not being anywhere near their best, leapfrogging Manchester United and Chelsea into 4th place. Watford on the other hand, who certainly might have won the match had Deeney been able to stay on the pitch, tumble down to 10th place.