Arsenal left relying on helping hand to edge past Watford

Arsenal 2-0 Watford: Arsenal have now won seven matches in a row, rising above Watford to keep pace with the big boys

In the end, Alexandre Lacazette required some assistance from the hapless Craig Cathcart to finally get the ball in the back of the net, towards the end of a difficult afternoon in front of goal. The striker had already spurned two golden opportunities by the time Alex Iwobi skidded a dangerous low cross into the box and, this time, Cathcart charitably turned the ball home to ensure Arsenal broke the deadlock.

Two minutes later and the game was over. Again Lacazette and Iwobi had an important role to play, the pair exchanging neat passes, the ball eventually swept into the box for Mesut Özil to side-foot home. It was a slick, sumptuous finish to a game that had so nearly gotten away from them.

But then that has been the story so far of Emery’s Arsenal. They have made a habit of starting matches too slowly, conceding far too many chances at the back and riding their luck at potentially decisive moments. They have also made a habit of winning. This was their seventh in succession and they now sit fifth in the table, level on points with Tottenham Hotspur.

“I think our players in the first half were a little nervous,” was Emery’s rather understated reaction late after the game. “We needed to continue to be calm. At half-time we spoke about improving things on the pitch with our positioning and so when our moments arrived in the second half, we showed great efficiency to score.”

Arsenal needed to improve because Javi Gracia’s resurgent Watford were brilliant in the first-half and very good in the second, before tiring late on and shipping those two heart-wrenchingly late goals. Perhaps that is not a surprise. This was the first time this season that Gracia has been forced to alternate from his preferred starting XI and given the newfound intensity with which they play, it is hardly surprising that Watford’s legs grew heavy late on.

That was one problem. The other was their profligacy in front of goal. Watford created plenty of opportunities and pushed hard for a famous win, but were made to pay for drawing a blank for the first time this season. Second-half substitute Isaac Success was the most guilty in this regard, storming through one-on-one only to flash his attempt inches wide of Bernd Leno’s far post.

It was a lucky escape for Leno, who was introduced on the cusp of half-time for a hamstrung Petr Cech, although the German deserved his portion of the clean sheet for a quite wonderful point blank save to deny Troy Deeney moments later. From a deep free-kick swung into the box, Deeney prodded a shot towards the bottom corner of Leno’s goal, only to be denied by an acrobatic clawing save from the German.

Arsenal finally found a way through (REUTERS)

Cech’s injury is a blow for Arsenal, especially considering his improved form over the last fortnight, but Leno is a more than adequate replacement. “Tomorrow I will know more,” Emery said of his senior goalkeeper. “Maybe it’s two or three weeks. It’s a muscular injury.”

As expected, this was a bruising afternoon for Arsenal. After all, has there ever been a player as diametrically opposed to the character and values of The Arsenal Football Club as Troy Matthew Deeney? “I have to get an X-ray but I played with three broken toes last week so it will be all right,” the striker deadpanned after Watford’s draw with Fulham and he was fit enough to start here, albeit after a round of painkilling injections presumably administered directly into his sizeable cojones.

His personal highlight surely arrived midway through the first-half, when he excelled himself by somehow managing to simultaneously injure both Nacho Monreal and Shkodran Mustafi lunging after an overcooked through ball. But for all of Watford’s gutsy work in the final third — as well as the creativity of the impressive Will Hughes and Roberto Pereyra — they were let down by their end product.

The Gunners took the three points (REUTERS)

As were Arsenal, until those frantic final ten minutes. Lacazette was quick to pounce upon a bungled back-pass from Cathcart early on, racing through on goal only to inexplicably drift his deft chipped effort wide of the onrushing Ben Foster’s far post, while he should have done better with a header in the second-half. Again, dismally wide.

However, Lacazette’s key contributions late on were to ensure he disappeared down the tunnel upon the sound of the full-time whistle with a beaming smile on his face. Something that cannot be said for Aaron Ramsey, who was completely anonymous before being hauled off with the game still goalless to a decidedly mixed reaction from the home crowd.

Statistics never tell the full story but they do provide instructive illustrations: by half-time, Ramsey had had fewer touches of the ball than the now lame Cech. He took his late withdrawal badly, pointedly blanking his manager’s outstretched hand, and his position at the club looks increasingly precarious. Is he a £330k-a-week player? Not on this evidence, no.