Arsenal make hard work of Watford as Auba has a day to forget

Arsenal 1 Watford 0  
Premier League  
Sunday 7th November 2021 2pm   

Arsenal’s next three away trips see them visit Liverpool, Manchester United and Everton. For the sake of momentum, home games against Watford, Newcastle and Southampton during the same period are vital, and although the Gunners made hard work of finishing off Watford yesterday, the points were secured.

Doktor Schneide sent me a text after the game -
Phew. Got there in the end. Was it me or did you see a number of Watford fans holding up signs saying ‘Pierre-Emerick, can I have your shirt?’

And indeed, it was a game for the Arsenal captain to forget for his trio of contributions in almost-goals.
1 – Saka’s offside. Auba failed to control a simple ball after Lacazette’s parried shot that he might have lashed into the net, leading to a forward knock-on – I won’t call it a pass – to his offside colleague.
2 – The penalty after Danny Rose’s foul on Lacazette. I’ll give him this, he hit it hard. Unfortunately, also straight at the keeper, making for an easy save. Auba has missed too many spot kicks now. Give the job to Lacazette who seems more clinical from 12 yards.
3 – His own offside from Odegaard’s shot – would likely have gone in off the post without Auba’s intervention. Oh well, at least his side were a goal up by that time.

Let’s get back to the start of the game. Partey’s injury meant Ainsley Maitland-Niles was given a chance to show what he can do as one of the central midfield pairing. Sambi Lokonga had been given a similar opportunity when Granit Xhaka suffered a long-term absence and made a decent claim to remain there. So a fresh partnership in the centre, and Maitland-Niles certainly impressed, with a generally intelligent physical display, especially in the build-up to the winning goal.

Kieran Tierney returned to the bench, although Nuno Tavares continued at left back. The formation remained the same, and Lacazette had another good game. Arsenal dominated until the goal finally came in the 56th minute. Danny Rose put the ball out of play. I’m uncertain how aware the opposition players were of the reasons he did so – an injury to a colleague, who didn’t help matters by getting up, indicating he wasn’t actually injured. So a question of footballing etiquette. I’ll summarize it like this – if Watford had scored under similar circumstances, there would have been uproar from the home fans. The problem with unwritten rules is that there is no-one to enforce them. It was a mess, but even worse was what you have to say was an Ainsley Maitland-Niles foul in the passage of play that followed, and led directly to Smith-Rowe’s successful shot at goal. Again, if Watford had scored such a goal, the ref would have heard a lot more about it from the stands. 

Arsenal deserved their lead, and such was their domination, the game should have been put to bed before the interval. But at least, messy as it was, they somehow contrived a winner. The game was scrappy and had a bit of an edge, finally boiling over with a second yellow card for Watford’s Kucka when it was so late in the game that you might put his challenge down to frustration. Claudio Ranieri’s team had a spell after the goal in which Arsenal allowed them to have the ball, but they were not good enough to do anything with it. Game management once they are ahead is still an area that Mikel Arteta needs to work on. 

The biggest scare came from a rare Ramsdale mistake, which presented Josh King with an unprotected goal, albeit from an angle that meant it wasn’t a sitter. He put it in the side netting and order was restored. 

So creatively, Arsenal did enough to make this match more comfortable than it turned out to be. But ended up almost shooting themselves in the foot. It means they go into the international break in fifth place, and in the mix of sorts. You do feel like the top three will be Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool, and no-one is really talking about a title tilt. Most Gooners are simply relieved that their team has shown genuine improvement since that horrible start to the campaign. 

The games at Anfield and Old Trafford are likely to provide a reality check, but it is important that games against relegation contenders, home or away, see Arsenal collect points. Yesterday was a case of job done, onto the next one, albeit in two weeks’ time.

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