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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

Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 0 Napoli

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Arsenal (2) 0 Napoli (0) 0
UEFA Europa League, Quarter Final, First Leg
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Thursday, 11th April 2019. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Čech; Sokratis, Koscielny, Monreal, Maitland-Niles; Torreira, Ramsey; Kolašinac, Özil, Lacazette; Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Leno, Mustafi, Suárez, Guendouzi.
Scorers: Ramsey, Koulibaly
Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)
Attendance: circa 60,000

Back to The Emirates, and of course, back to winning ways, which is de rigueur for our home matches this season. How different tonight’s match in both attitude and aptitude from the horrendous car crash that befell the team at Goodson Park just 96 hours hence (or thereabouts). Tonight’s match was a tale of two midfielders, the departing Aaron Ramsey and the remaining Lucas Torreira, both of whom completely oozed class and dominace here in North London this evening.

Aaron Ramsey’s opening goal was surely nothing short of sublime, and coming as it did, on quarter of an hour after the start, showed Arsenal’s intent. As we have seen before with the Welsh Wizard this season, the move he started became the goal he finished. A nifty pass to Mesut Özil, who then gently pushed the ball on to Alexandre Lacazette which travelled quickly to Ainsley Maitland-Niles; the man who started the move then received it and in the blink of an eye it was in the back of the Napoli net. Just like that. Confidence in a football team is always 90 per cent of the proceedings, and for the next ten minutes or so, Arsenal showed their class. Ten minutes after taking the lead, Lucas Torreira received the ball on the edge of the Napoli area, and merely took a chance with a quick shot that caught the unfortunate Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly on its way to wickedly going high and over goalkeeper Alex Meret and into the net to make it two-nil to Arsenal. The remaining twenty minutes of the first half became a running battle between our strikers and the Napoli defenders as to who was to gain the upper hand. By rights, it should have been us, with both Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang getting mighty close with some superb shots, provided by our midfielders, who were doing sterling work in providing them with the necessary tools to finish the job. Despite all this and more, we went into the break two goals to the good and a promise of an even better second half.

Undoubtedly the happier of the two managers, Mr. Emery kept his nerve and the team as it was before in a never-ending search for that elusive third goal. The Napoli manager, our old friend Mr. Ancelotti had other ideas and put pressure on our defence which managed to hold firm throughout, even with the heart stopping moment when Napoli did manage to finally get the ball past Petr Čech and into the net, only for the match officials to correctly rule it out for offside. Phew. The match levelled out, and Mr. Emery made three substitutions in ten minutes; Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alex Iwobi and Mohamed Elneny for Mesut Özil, Alexandre Lacazette and Lucas Torreira. Off we went again. Despite some wonderful football emanating from the football brain of Aaron Ramsey, we just could not get that killer third goal to take to Naples next week. Still, a good win, and one that we can hopefully build on next Thursday.

What price Aaron Ramsey, we ask ourselves? He seems to be on the way to becoming more of a complete midfielder as he gets closer to the exit signs to start his new career at Juventus. With performances such as this tonight, we are starting to question the wisdom of allowing him to leave North London. We are now all surely praying that this clever footballer doesn’t come back to haunt us one day; but the world of professional football works in mysterious ways, as well we know. Still no Denis Suárez, who is becoming almost Garbo-like in his non-appearance on the pitch, sadly. It would have been good to see Mattéo Guendouzi stretch his legs for a while at some point in the match, but as the game was going our way early on in the proceedings, his skills were not required tonight. And so, it’s Naples for the chaps next week, and we are all hoping that we can see the job through well enough to get to the semi-final draw. 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.