Arsene Wenger took aim at referee Neil Swarbrick after Watford’s Brazilian attacker Richarlison dived to win a penalty, scored by Troy Deeney, that swung the momentum away from Arsenal in their 2-1 defeat at Vicarage Road.
The Gunners took the lead on 39 minutes courtesy of Per Mertesacker’s header and would have been out of sight in the second half had Alex Iwobi and Mesut Ozil taken clear-cut chances. Within 30 seconds of Heurelho Gomes saving the German’s effort on 70 minutes the home side won and converted their dubious spot-kick before Tom Cleverley pounced in stoppage time to seal all three points for the Hornets.
Unsurprisingly, Arsene Wenger was furious after the match both with his side’s profligacy and the officiating.
“We had many, many dangerous situations where we could have scored goals and didn’t,” the Frenchman told BT Sport.
“Many opportunities to score the second goal once we were 1-0 up and after on top of that we’re unlucky with the decision on the penalty, it’s ridiculous. Then we panicked a little bit in the last second. There was no reason to give the ball away and in the
“Then we panicked a little bit in the last second. There was no reason to give the ball away and in the end we stand there with a defeat.
“I think it [the awarding of the penalty] is a scandalous decision but what can we do about it? Nothing.
“We can talk and talk and talk, but at the end of the day they scored.”
Reflecting on the performance as a whole, Wenger also picked up on the worrying lack of urgency after the break.
“I felt we dropped our level in the second half,” he noted.
“In the first half we played extremely well, we lost our fluency in the second half and were not exactly the same level as the first. Despite that, we should be clinical, we had the chances to score two and three.”
To compound the Gunners misery both Laurent Koscielny and Danny Welbeck went off injured to add to the absence of Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez, who both sat out the match.
“I don’t know [the specifics of the problems],” reported Wenger.
“Koscielny is coming back from an Achilles problem and it’s a tight calf. Welbeck is a hamstring. I don’t know yet [if Ramsey and Alexis will be involved this week in the Europa League], I have to see on Monday.”
Nothing more scandalous than Arsene Wenger signing a two year extension last summer
Stop hurting his apologist feeling, he’s still the best. They’d rather finish mid table than Arsène leaves.
Yup, 3 fa cupsin 4 years. Ffs
Lol when have they finished midtable during his tenure? lol first time they do its going to be what? “see told you so” lol
Totally agree!
tell me about it
Took the words right out out of my mouth!
The Arsenal should be beating these teams by a few goals. Shit decision on the penalty but we should have had a cushion. The worst part is that our football is so bad to watch. Wengerball is truly dead. Sad times!
We had a few moments where we upped the tempo and looked dangerous then we just went back to slow build up and we get pounded. Its madness. Catalyst for change sure is looking more like a catalyst for the exact same thing as always. Its funny the comments during a decent run and all of a sudden we are back at the top. Some guy even said he thinks we’ll win all four trophies this year…LMAO! Same old same old. Arsenal are very good at one thing. Making tonnes of money for the ol’ white men that run the… Read more »
This is the team Citeh demolished 6-0 and we just fall apart!
How are the mighty fallen, tell it not at Vicarage Road.
Same old excuses. The penalty was infuriating but what’s even worse than that is the lack of urgency. You’ve pointed it out so many times arsene yet we see nothing improving on that end.
Honest question. Anyone care to tell me the point of Granit Xhaka? I’d never seen him play football before he joined us and I still haven’t seen him play football?
Come on man. Be a fan ffs. Lets give him 10 more years to turn things around. With Kroenkes lead of course we’ll reach greatest heights. coyg
true that . give him 10 years and i”ll guarentee he will be lifting the championship cup with kroenke
Another rubbish decision against us.
Of course, for all those years it’s the refs fault, nothing to do with Arsène.
Arsened, have some diginity and leave, put Arsenal before yourself and money if you truly want us to move forward and still have some respect for you.
Arsène IS the problem.
Forgotten about the Mustafi pen v West Brom already???
That was for us.
Well spotted sir…are you saying there wasn’t an inference in your first post that refs are against us?
Why do you hate Arsenal so much? Basically, that wasn´t a pen, Rodriguez slipped (watch it) and today wasn´t a pen in a million years. It should have been a yellow for the dive … and probably would have been if it had been against MU or Pool
Who hates arsenal ? What a ridiculous comment, seriously grow up. It was a blatant pen.
Bollocks. You make you’re own luck.
We dropped our level & panicked a bit. From the team with great mental strength ? Surely not…
We had a level ?
Ground level?
Sub basement level more like.
Arsenal were god awful and the sooner Ozil goes the better.
He offers nothing except back strain to the team from carrying him every game he plays…
Leon, Leon, Leon. If you think the problem with Arsenal is Mesut Ozil then we are truely doomed to mediocrity as a club, because if as the fans we would rather scapegoat one player for everything that ever goes wrong (and a dam good one at that) then we deserve this ride Kroenke, Gazidis and Wenger are taking us on because we are gullible fools
Almost as a bad a decision as putting on Mesut Özil, aka The Passenger, when you’re defending a 1-0 lead away from home.
I wish I could thumbs this up repeatedly for the next two hours.
We were playing Watford not Man City. He put one on a plate for iwobi within a minute to wrap it up and then should have scored himself to wrap it up. To blame him is just laughable really.
This is pitiful!
Had we lost and Ozil was not brought on fans would be all over Wenger for not sending on our most creative player. Had Ozil scored the goal to make the game safe like in earth 2.0, we would be lauding Wenger for his good decision. Ozil should have scored his chance. As a manager, you bring on players such as him to carve out opportunities to score. But you can’t do it for them. Sending Ozil on wasn’t the wrong decision but not switching to a 4 3 3 was.
He’s right about the dive, I’m lost on the many opportunities we had though. Only recall Gomes making one save.
…so was the team selection… and tactics… and substitutions… and you yourself
Yes it was a scandalous penalty. But fuck off Wenger anyway. A top team would hit straight back not fall apart. And that’s your lack of leadership. You can reel off as many excuses as you like but it doesn’t change the fact that we are mediocre. I live and work in Africa. Over the years going to watch the game you see the changing trends – many years ago everyone was either arsenal or manure, with the older guys supporting the bin dippers. Then Arsenal tops declined and Chav tops proliferated. Last couple of years Citeh shirts in evidence.… Read more »
To be fair I can’t get my kids to support the club either! Shirts, tickets, stupid gunnersaurus stuff…. nothing works. They’d rather support Leicester! Sad times.
Try cash reserves. They might like us after all
To correct you a bit, They don’t support and shift support to the new winner. I am African and all I can tell you is you get new fans as the game grows more in popularity. Can’t blame a new fan liking spurs or city if they are playing better or winning. OK you can still blame anything to do with spurs apart from hating them. But man city have just put seven or six past some evil team, they’ve scored five in each of the last two league games. All their attacking players look quality and they even tried… Read more »
Well said man. We’re pathetic. We play awful football. The only times we have been entertaining this season is when we’ve played high tempo, direct football. When we utilise our speed to vision. But wenger cannot adapt to his players. He makes his players adapt to him. That is such a backwards way to coach. Football had moved on. Arsene has not.
Fair point but my experience is somewhat different – ive had many conversations other the years that begin with ‘ I used to support Arsenal but….’
As for selling the team to new supporters, I would have an easier time selling McDonalds in Pyongyang.
And yes I shall continue to blame Sp**s for everything possible. The fuckers!!!!
We should have scored a second but the ref has diddled us here.
In the first half we played extremely well. Mental.
We were better than in the second, but we did not play extremely well; how standards have slipped! It felt insipid, plodding and dull.
For all those who love to blame Alexis for our woes……without him we are a dull, dull team.
I’ve never blamed him but maybe we also need to sit back and think that even with him we dropped to Europa for the first time in ages and to those Chile fans who wanted to march in the streets to get him out of poor Arsenal, they won’t be marching to Russia that’s for sure. With him as well.
Maybe we should march in the streets and get him to play for Panama or realise that no player is bigger than the team and that applies to him too.
And I like him a lot
Absolutely spot on
Exactly the same thing as how much people were ranting and raving about the away draw at Chelsea. The greatest point in the history of the premier league. How standards have slipped indeed
Couldn’t believe he said that when I read the article. If Arsene truly believes we played “extremely well” in the first half he’s seriously lost it. We barely created anything. Yes, it wasn’t as bad as the second half but it was hardly good. We just kept the ball but weren’t able to do much with it.
Tbh…didn’t see us scoring at all based on our first half performance. Thought it would just a be a boring 0 – 0 draw. When we did score, then thought it might just be our lucky day & sneaking a 1 – 0 win or at worst a 1 – 1 draw. Second half performance from the get go saw a predictable loss of 2 – 1. We could ALL see that coming. Surely it is entirely up to the manger to motivate 2nd half performance. You really have to question exactly wtf AW said at half time. Sick &… Read more »
Chup chutye wenger.
i died laughing in this one. Thanks for the chuckle.
Why can’t we see the Laca/Giroud pairing up top?! Laca, quick with his feet was causing problems and jump-starting attack around the 18. He was a threat. Iwobi played well, shitty not to finish his chance. Ozil – finish your days in the MLS. Fuck off. No one plays with balls anymore. It’s infuriating to continue with the same result over and over.
Why the hell would you bring Ozil when we are 1-0 up away?
To create (2 while Iwobi got one created chance in 90 minutes) and that’s what he did. He even defended and had a shot on goal.
Because it was a forced sub trying to get Iwobi wide and someone in that 10 position. A thin line or just a game of margins. He set up Iwobi and had a clear chance too. We could be here talking about a goal and an assist on his return but poor hindsight, tactical us! Please don’t mistake me for defending Arsene. That time is well in my past and now I dropped my “defending him intensity” and I support him with a handbrake on. This loss hurt me I got extra drunk quick and now I must be like… Read more »
Didn’t you know that Mesut is a class act?
The lineup today was baffling, we were set up as if we playing one of the best teams in the league and were going to seek to soak up lots of pressure and hit on the break, yet this was against a team who were never going to dominate possession. There was no coherent pressing or urgency in the midfield and attack when they had the ball and a lack of speed and directness on the counter-attack, with far too many long cross-field passes that killed any momentum. The team selection and the tactics were so poor, while the in… Read more »
Who would you have played today? Ramsey and Alexis not available. Ozil still coming back from his injury. Who would you have replaced today out of the available players that you think would have made a miraculous difference?
Wilshere, still working his way back and I would love to have seen him come on 70-75m mark. Besides Jack who else whould have been available to use that would have dramatically changed our side into a high octane attack?
Scandalous decision that you still have a job at Arsenal.
We were pretty crap in the first half, tbh – it’s just that Watford were worse. It wasn’t a great decision by the ref, though the opprobrium should be reserved for the cheating bastard who dived. Hopefully a 2 match ban looms, though that is of little benefit to us. As soon as Ozil missed that sitter, I just KNEW we were going to screw it up. So there is some things that went against us (injuries too), but we leave ourselves vulnerable through a lack of ruthlessness and combativeness.
Fans got to take responsibility for the current state of affairs too. Any form of protest at the stadium, where it matters, is shot down by people as disloyal. The same people that say they want change. We make it far, far too easy for these owners to keep abusing our great club.
This is NO sitter: bad ball behind him, no way to look at the GK, save from the GK. The guy hadn’t played for one month and he is supposed to goal at his first chance?
For an attacking player who sees himself as a 250k a week player that was undeniably a sitter. It’s pitiful to blame Ozil for all our woes but just as pitiful to consistently absolve him of blame.
Yes he should have scored that. He set set it up beautifully but just didn’t finish correctly. He got to cute with the ball instead of just going for the easy goal. Lets be real here and not call Ozil a scorer. That is never him and never will be. He is a guy whos going to help create chances for his teammates like he did for Iwobi. He is a player that is going to help with the buildup on the attacking end. Is he a poor a finisher? Of course he is, I don’t even think his #1… Read more »
An attacking player who is a poor finisher is simply not a world class player. I don’t understand how anyone could argue with that, I really don’t.
I can see ourselves 20 points behind City sooner than even the most fervent Wenger-Out fans could have predicted
Well can we wait until City even loses a game? lol
The fact is, YOU DON’T GIVE THE REF THE OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE A PENALTY, when will players learn not to challenge in the box, attempt to challenge, or go to ground.
I feel like this club could use a catalyst for change ….
As long as it does not involve that waste of space Ivan Gazidis.
£2.5 million a year.
I struggle to understand what he does.
Generate income – for players?
Arsenal had a net profit on transfers.
How do you compete with City when you finish the summer in profit?
That suggests we are weaker than before.
I just wish something positive would happen that involves wenger leaving…
“I struggle to understand what he does.”
Its about as clear as day-light. He generates a truckload of money of the Mr. Walmart through his bull$**t PR to fans with statements such as “ambition”, “catalyst for change”, “we’re not satisfied”. And sadly most of the fans lap it up and keep expecting things to get better with the Kroenke-Gazidis-Wenger trio. IT’S NOT GOING TO!!
Gazidis is actually VERY good at his job
“In the first half we played extremely well”
we had one shot (goal from set piece), after 10min. I stopped counting how many great runs Lacazette made, the one and only promising through ball he got was from Koscielny. Midfield was so poor.. pass it left, pass it right, pass it back and repeat. Substitutions like always make no sense. Penalty was like meh.., but we didn’t even deserve a point.
So so slow again right? There was about 3x 5min periods during the game where we upped the tempo and everytime we threatened and looked dangerous (one was the last 5 mins or so in the 1st half when we scored). Then we would just drop back to slow build up and get pressed and Watford would start attacking hard and fast and we’d be a shambles again. Like someone else mentioned. Lacazette made 20 or more runs off the hip off the defenders I counted two or three times people tried to find him (and failed), we were so… Read more »
Out of the title chase in October!
Other top clubs would sack the manager.
But wait… were no longer a top club 🙁
Lol FFS, yeah everyone is out of the title chase besides United. If City doesn’t lose a game everyone will be out by Xmas
Nothing as scandalous as you signing a new deal. Penalty didn’t make you sub in Giroud when there was no need to. Leave Wenger. Leave!!
Nice distraction for the shite performance
While it was a shame to see Welbeck come off injured, I was really optimistic assuming Giroud would come on to help secure a 1-0 win away from home.
Shame on me for being optimistic.
This was like a George Graham team display without any of the George Graham players passion and application. We are an average team in a big stadium with a big brand heading for mid table.
Hey guys we played our best against a superior, top 4 opponent. We will get back to our winning ways once we get to the easy part of our schedule. You know, the League Cup.
Sorry Arsene. Youre right But we’ve heard this same lament so many times you’d have thought by now you might actually train the team to , you know , pass to one another and even shoot at goal. Might win that way.
Nowhere to run to Baby, nowhere to hide…..
What would have happened if a scandalous penalty had been awarded against Man City away v Watford a few weeks ago? They would only have won 6-1. Who would have cared?
Sublime Arse
Kroenke renewing Wengers contract is a scandalous decision.
Not for Kroenke…
We are, without a doubt, an old mans team.
Yes it was scandalous, but you canot say Watford didn’t deserve something from the game, they were all over us in the second half. We were a Fucking shambles all over the pitch, some of the passing there tobight, fucking hell if you did it in an under 11’s game the manager would fucking rip you off the pitch. If I turned on the tele and someone said to me “oh this is a second division league of ireland match” I would have believed it easily. A Fucking disgrace
Oh well. Soon be Christmas.. That hasn’t improved peoples mood has it? Just throw it in the fuck it bucket – I am slowly but surely starting to care less and less about a club that seems to have no ambitions for itself and where you are called disloyal if you dare to even mention that the manager has long passed his best. Its like sitting in a burning house and pretending everything is fine. Arsenal are in decline. I said it. You know it. The world knows it. We know the cause of it. The only one who doesn’t… Read more »
I think the only way we can keep the players we want and sign new better ones is if we sign a decent Manager. Someone who can play the modern game and someone the players will both respect and listen to. Sure as hell Wenger has to go. I admire him and what he has done but I am sick of living in the shadows of previous glory and the good old days. Those days are a mere memory in the distant past more than almost a decade and a half. Just fucking sad
Arsenal need to stop bleating about ref decisions and take responsibility for playing like the bunch of spoiled, wet-arsed, wankers they’ve turned into.
Pathetic.
does wenger ever say anything different?
its the same excuses every week.
We were wasteful in front of goal when we should have been out of sight at 1-0. We just have to take this one at the chin and wait to fight another day.
how does ozil come on and wilshere doesn’t. ozil doesn’t press the deflected shot and they score the second goal. how does he miss that chance? present for 10 minutes then completely absent. wilshere presses, is in form, and actually wants to play for us. I’d put him on before ozil based on current form. I really look forward to the day that ozil leaves. I think he’s got a great public image managed very meticulously to make people to believe that because he looks and acts lackadaisical that means he’s not, its just the way it is. It is… Read more »
@lula. I see a player (Ozil) who is playing without a midfield. And making the most of a dire situation..good luck to him no wonder he looks miffed off.
fair enough GoonerN16. That’s your view but not mine. For me, that midfield beat Chelsea and has been the base of a relatively decent patch of good form in the league. Not Ozil.
I meant drew against Chelsea! But after the Liverpool game, anything less that a 4-0 loss feels like a win!
I know it divides opinion but I think there is genuinely a problem with Ozil and I hope he is sold this January.
I don’t know if the penalty really was a bad decision.
certainly not clear cut, and probably not a penalty on balance, but Bellerin potentially puts his leg slightly in front of the Watford player.
Perhaps not a clear trip, but there was some physical obstruction, I think
Sift as shite but yes there was (minimal) contact. And he was looking to dive at that minimal contact. We’ve benefited from a few of these in the past. Eduardo against Celtic was almost identical abs we got the pen. I remember a chamakh one too. And I mean we dodged a bullet on one against WBA.
This loss and our current state is on the axis of mediocrity: Wenger gazidis kroenke
This is the exactsort of nonsense from Wenger that does not help with his team or accountabilty. You should expect some decisions to go against you. Don’t make them excuses for rubbish performance in the second half or a lack of options because you did not buy sufficiently in the summer to cover, or your unwarranted faith too heavily weight in internal solutions/development. Elneny is a poor option in midfield. Gabriel was a silly decision in instead banking on the untested Holding. We should have reinforce midfield at very least. BUT the focus on ire and criticism should be on… Read more »
Fuck off.
Can Arsene not accept this was a pathetic performance…….