Watford 2-2 Arsenal: Eyebrow-Raising Statistics Highlight Gunners Defensive Fragilities

Sunday's 2-2 draw with Watford struck a familiar chord for Arsenal, as a polarising performance saw a catastrophic defensive performance in the second half cancel out a productive first 45 minutes. 

A stray Sokratis pass in his own area allowed Tom Cleverley to cleverly stroke past Bernd Leno, before a rash challenge from David Luiz on substitute Roberto Pereyra allowed the Argentine to calmly convert a penalty, after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had given them a comfortable lead with two strikes of his own. 

The ​Hornets comeback was by no means a smash-and-grab effort either. In Quique Sanchez Flores' first game back at the club, they attempted 31 shots - the highest tally Arsenal have faced in a Premier League fixture since ​Opta began collecting such data in the division in 2003-04. The away side, by contrast, had seven. 

Incidentally, Watford's 31st shot - a close-range Abdoulaye Doucoure effort well-saved by Leno - was the 96th Unai Emery's side have faced this season. That's more than any team in any of Europe's big five divisions this season. 

It was a harsh stroke of irony, then, that for all Watford's efforts in front of goal, it was two individual Arsenal errors that led to the goals. But that's nothing new as far as the Gunners are concerned either.


Since the start of last season, they have now made a combined 14 errors leading to opposition goals in the Premier League, at least two more than any other club in this time. 

Granit Xhaka,Anthony Taylor,Sokratis Papastathopoulos

The second goal in particular felt like deja vu, with ​Arsenal conceding a penalty for a third straight game. That's now ten penalties they've conceded since the start of last season, with only Brighton matching that in the same period. 


Arsenal, then, may have come on leaps and bounds in the Emery era - but from a defensive perspective at least, they have plenty of improving left to do. 


Source : 90min