Match Report: Watford 0 – 1 Arsenal

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Watford (0) 0 Arsenal (1) 1

Premier League

Vicarage Road, Watford, WD18 0ER

Monday, 15th April 2019. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Leno; Mustafi, Mavropanos, Koscielny, Monreal; Torreira, Xhaka; Mkhitaryan, Ramsey, Iwobi; Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Čech, Elneny, Lacazette, Özil, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Kolašinac.

Scorer: Aubameyang

Referee: Craig Pawson

Attendance: 21,120

And so we won an away match in the Premiership at last, and in doing so, have launched ourselves into fourth place in the table. That is at least how the commentators and pundits will say about tonight’s game at Vicarage Road, but in essence there was far more to this encounter than mere simple soundbites.

The event that turned the match came as early as the eleventh minute, shortly after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored the only goal of the game. Lucas Torreira was the victim of a vicious forearm smash by Watford striker Troy Deeney; to the credit of referee Craig Pawson, he saw the incident and immediately issued a red card to the Watford striker, who unbelievably seemed nonplussed by the decision. Perhaps when he sees his handiwork again on television tonight, he may well see things differently (or not).

Previous to this fracas, our striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored perhaps what will become his most unbelievable goal this season. From a pointless back pass from a defender, Hornets goalkeeper Ben Foster found himself in difficulty as the Arsenal man chased in to challenge; as the goalkeeper attempted to clear the danger, the ball struck the underside of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s boot and into the goal. It may well have been odd, but hey, any goal is a good goal.

Strangely enough, two things should have happened after these two events; firstly, the home side should have caved in having been reduced to ten men, and secondly, more importantly, Arsenal should have capitalised on this and scored more goals. Neither of these theories came to fruition. Instead, it was a hard and sometimes painful first half for us. Watford pinned us into our own half and nearly scored on two occasions, with Arsenal being forced to defend deep and try and bust out in a classic Arsenal thirties’ “smash-and-grab” movement, but that proved easier to think about but increasingly hard to implement.

After the break, Mr. Emery did what he always does best; introduce substitutes at the right time in the match. Enter the much maligned Mesut Özil for a subdued Lucas Torreira, who to be fair, never really recovered fully from the earlier incident. The formation was changed to accommodate him, giving Aaron Ramsey a far more fluid role and in doing so put the home side under pressure. For the next quarter of an hour, Arsenal were in the ascendancy; both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were desperately unlucky not to score and it seemed as if it would be merely a matter of time before we chalked up a second goal. But it was not to be. Watford too, made a vital substitution, changed formation and brought trouble to our door. Their pressure was relentless, and they dominated us for large chunks of what remained of the match, and we can consider ourselves very lucky indeed that Watford did not at least draw level, particularly in the dying minutes of this Monday night match.

We can all breathe a sigh of relief that this game is now over, and we have got our three points and have found ourselves in fourth position in the Premiership. And still we live dangerously in away matches, and still we ride our luck, and still we have an inability to impose ourselves in matches away from The Emirates. How there can be such a difference between our home form and our away games is becoming more than just a mystery, it’s a downright enigma in all its variations. And still no Denis Suárez, not even on the bench tonight. Will we ever see him start a match? Who knows? Mr. Emery obviously does, and he’s not saying a word. Napoli are our next opponents in the Europa Cup in Naples on Thursday evening; dear God, let us hold firm, win the match and get through to the semi-finals. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon

Top 4 race set to go down to last game of the season

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The race for the top 4 rolls on tonight as Arsenal face a tricky trip to Watford.

It was not too long ago that Arsenal were in 3rd place and in poll position to finish in the top 4. A couple of weeks and a single defeat later, Arsenal find themselves in 6th, playing catch up.

Victories for Manchester United and Tottenham have left Arsenal in 6th place, despite a defeat for Chelsea. Win tonight and Arsenal return to 4th.

Looking forward, 75 is still the magic number for 4th place.

To achieve this, Arsenal would need to win both their remaining home games, as well as beat Watford tonight.

With trips to Leicester, Wolves and Burnley still to come, coupled with Arsenal’s poor away form, those 2 away victories will not come easy.

Looking at the remaining fixtures, Chelsea and Manchester United have the hardest run ins.

Taking into account Manchester United’s poor form – despite getting the 3 points against West Ham, they were the worst team – it is unlikely they will come away from the next 3 games with 9 out of 9 points. They could find themselves cut adrift as we go into May.

Tottenham have 1 tough game, and it is up next against Manchester City. After that you would expect them to get 12 from 12. They will probably secure 3rd.

When you look at the remaining fixtures Arsenal face, you can see the importance of winning tonight.

Victory would take the Gunners into 4th place and, with Crystal Palace up after, Arsenal could find themselves in 3rd place with 4 games to go.

6 points from the next 2 games will see Arsenal up to 69 points. That will likely put them level with Chelsea (who will surely beat Burnley at home) and 2 points ahead of Tottenham in 5th (who surely will not beat Manchester City).

The next key weekend will be when Manchester United host Chelsea. At this point Man U will probably find themselves 5 points off Arsenal, and could result in the strange situation of Arsenal fans wanting Manchester United to win.

Were Arsenal to lose to Leicester, that would likely leave us in a situation where 2 points separate Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United. With all 3 sides having 2 games to go, 1 at home, 1 away.

At this point, facing Huddersfield and Cardiff, Man U would have the easiest run in, but they would be 2 points off 4th.

This 2 point gap is likely to remain into the last game of the season.

At this point Tottenham would have secured top 4, and only need a draw to finish 3rd.

With 1 point between Arsenal and Chelsea, with both facing away trips to Burnley and Leicester respectively, it will be a straight shoot out between the 2 to finish 4th – at this point Manchester United would be relying on both sides to fail to win to be in with a chance.

And it all starts tonight with Arsenal facing Watford….

Keenos

Is Gareth Bale to Arsenal a deal worth pursuing

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In a recent poll by Spanish media outlet Marca, 87% of Real Madrid fans voted Gareth Bale as the player they wanted sold this summer.

Speculation is increasing that he will depart Madrid this summer.

Bale has never endeared himself to the Los Blancos faithful. He has never really connected and after 6-years in Spain is still reportedly unable to speak Spanish. it is no surprise that he topped the vote.

If Bale does leave Madrid this summer, there will be a host of clubs sniffing around.

The likes of PSG and Manchester United have been long term admirers. But should Arsenal throw their hat into the ring? Here we evaluate whether Arsenal should make form Tottenham player Gareth Bale their number one target this summer.

There is no doubting that Gareth Bale is a World Class talent. He is the type of player that wins games on his own.

He became the first substitute to score twice in a Champions League final and was named man of the match as he drove the side to victory in 2017/18 and recently scored his 100th goal for Real Madrid.

Arsenal lack wingers, and he would solve our problem on the right hand side. He is very much the modern winger.

He has pace to burn, stamina and able to score from distance. He is good in the air and delivers a good ball into the box. During his early days at Tottenham, he was on all set pieces – goal kicks, free kicks; both direct and indirect.

He would walk into Arsenal’s team.

Bale would be a huge talisman in the side, and potentially replace Mesut Ozil as Arsenal’s chief creator, main game winner.

There are however some big concerns over Bale, however.

He turns 30-years-old at the end of this season and you have to wonder if he has peaked.

Recent seasons he has been hampered by injury – and he has only ever played over 30 league games for Real Madrid once in 6 seasons.

Having scored 47 goals in 81 league games during his first 3 seasons in Spain, the last 3 seasons have seen him score just 30 goals in 66 games.

Were Arsenal to sign the Welshman, they would be writing off his transfer fee.

At 30-years-old, there would be little to no sell on value. He would likely get a 4-year deal, which would put him at 34 by the time it is up. Would it really make sense to tie up £60m+ in transfer fee’s on a player whose star is fading?

Players coming towards the end of their peak are often the worst to buy.

It is at that stage they usually still command a huge wage and transfer fee; but you might only get a couple of good years out of them before they completely fall off a cliff. Think Robin van Persie joining Manchester United and having one good season.

Bale reportedly earns close to £500,000 a week at Madrid. This hugely dwarfs what Mesut Ozil is on at Arsenal. Were Arsenal to become interested, he would likely have to half his wage demands.

Even then, tying up £250,000 a week for 4-years on Bale would be a huge risk.

Based on the figures proposed here, a deal would cost Arsenal more than £110m (transfer fee + wages). Spread over 4 years, he would cost around £30million a year. Bale would take up 8% of our total turnover (£388m in 2017/18).

Ozil has been under heavy criticism this season for underperforming and missing too many games. Bale has had a similar season for Madrid. Ozil takes up just 4.6% of the clubs turnover. Bale would be just under double that. A huge sum to tie up into an injury player who may well be deteriorating quickly.

A deal for Bale would surely only happen if Ozil is on his way out?

Everything taken into consideration, if Arsenal did decide to tie up £30million a year in a single player, I think there are better options than Bale.

That sort of investment could secure the club someone like Ousmane Dembélé from Barcelona, who at 21-years-old would make a much more sensible investment.

Or Arsenal could spend a lot less and get the likes of Leon Bailey, Ivan Perisic, Lorenzo Insigne, Yannick Carrasco, Kingsley Coman, Florian Thauvin and leave us enough change to also sign Kai Havertz.

At the minute Bale is perhaps a bigger name and salary then his current ability. We should leave him to the likes of Manchester United and PSG who would happily invest over £100m in him just to get 2 good years.

Keenos