Goals: Watford: Deeney (72 pen), Cleverley (92). Arsenal: Mertesacker (39)
Man of the Match/Goat of the Game: Nobody deserved to be man of the match. Goat of the game … there were several, although nobody stood out above the rest. Alex Iwobi maybe gets the honour as he squandered a number of promising moves.
Referee Rating: Neil Swarbrick 1. He called a penalty for Watford, one which changed the game. The penalty? Bellerin was called for tripping Richarlison, but replays showed he made no contact with his feet. There was some body contact and Richarlison sold it to the referee.
On the other hand, the referee ignored lots of other contact. Ask Welbeck and Giroud.
Manager Rating: Wenger 3. Should he have started without Sanchez? Ramsey was AWOL from yesterday’s practice, so we can understand that. Iwobi was preferred to Ozil, Mertesacker to Holding. Unfortunately, the squad played sloppily for most of the game and maybe it was the lineup.
Arsenal performance: A poor showing plus a poor call from the referee saw the Gunner’s squander an opportunity to gain points on several rivals and instead fall further behind. Most of the first half saw the Gunners fail to create anything significant, but they scored from a corner kick and ended the half showing a little life. In the second half they tended to soak up the pressure and on several occasions they countered and created several opportunities, Iwobi and Ozil failed to convert their chances. Swarbrick’s penalty call changed things and Arsenal started to sag after the goal and in the end they conceded. Watford just wanted it more at the end.
Conclusion: Sloppy passing, poor decision making, poor shooting, some chaotic defending all combined to produce the loss. They now need to pick themselves up and put this loss behind them.
Player Ratings:
Cech 5: Looked commanding in the area most of the game, but once again he failed to even come close to stopping the penalty. He couldn’t have saved the winning goal as a previous shot had deflected off Mertesacker.
Koscielny 6: Played reasonably well, but had to leave the field early. A big injury concern with Mustafi already out.
Mertesacker 6: Scored his first goal of the season and looked comfortable most of the match until Deeney came on. Deeney claims he made contact on Mertesacker early on and Per started to wilt. An unlucky deflection off Per at the end went to Cleverley, who scored. An earlier deflection of a Capoue shot hit the upright.
Monreal 7: He had a great chance to score, but hesitated and tried to shift it to his left foot and the opportunity was gone. Pretty steady most of the afternoon.
Elneny 6: A busy afternoon, but he lacked any ability to break down their defence. He became less influential as the game became more stretched later on.
Xhaka 6: A couple of shots on goal in the first half, the first causing Gomes to spill the ball. He overhit several through balls and was untidy at times. He settled down in the middle of the game, but he disappeared late.
Bellerin 5: The penalty was harsh, but he was dangerously close and was a little physical. He also made several giveaways and he missed a golden chance to score when he smacked a cross over the bar.
Kolasinac 6: Sead only really got forward twice and he had a quiet match.
Iwobi 6: What to say about Alex? He looked our most dangerous player on the day, had a few excellent runs, forced Gomes to make an excellent save, set up Ozil for what should have been our second goal … sounds good. However, he made poor passes on a number of occasions, what should’ve been simple passes were poorly executed.
Lacazette 5: Similar to Iwobi. He made awful passes a number of times, lost the ball often and never looked the dangerous striker who cost so much money.
Welbeck 5: Back from his injury he got the start and worked hard, but looked rusty and didn’t combine well with Iwobi and Lacazette. On top of that, he left the field hurt.
Substitutes:
Ozil 5: It looked so promising. He came in, made a super pass to Iwobi, who almost scored. Then he had the chance to score and he shot lamely at Gomes. After that, he failed to impose himself on the match and was initially responsible for the run into the penalty area that got the penalty.
Giroud n/a: One weak header, a few poor flicks, and a few lumps from the Watford defenders.
Holding n/a: Came in for Koscielny. The winning goal came from his side, but I’ve not studied the replays to see if he was to blame.