Arsenal took three points and moved up into 5th place in the Premier League after an eventful 1-0 win over Watford at the Emirates this afternoon.
Bukayo Saka had a goal disallowed, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed a first half penalty, before Emile Smith Rowe scored the only goal of the game in the 56th minute. The visitors were unhappy about the build-up to the goal, believing Arsenal should have given the ball back after they put it out because a player was down injured – but who cares?
An offside Aubameyang denied Odegaard a second after he’d replaced Lacazette, and the final stages were a bit nervier than they should have been. A late red card for the Hornets eased the nerves a bit, and in the end three points are three points.
Read the Arsenal 1-0 Watford match report and see the goal here
Arsenal 1-0 Watford – Player Ratings
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Am I the first of many to say that this is the sort of game we’d have dropped points in recent years? Well done, men!
Agreed
Auba did his best to make sure we still did drop points.had an absolute shocker. Telegraphed that penalty. I could see which way he was going and I’m in the North Bank!
Ha ha. Auba must have eyes in the back of his head…
Yup.
We are genuinely solid in defence. I think Tomiyasu is doing a great job locking up his side of the pitch.
Just down-voted your comment in error. Any idea how to reverse this?
I did wonder!
I think if you press up-vote it should neutralise it!
Upvote once to reverse it, upvote a second time to upvote it
Now let’s not go crazy, he only ask’d how to undo the dislike!! hehe
Gives Laca a 7, talks about him as if he should have got a 2, nonsense. He was one of our better players, had some nice passes, won FK’s especially one where esr played a shocking pass to him and Laca put his body in the way to potentially bail us out.12/17 passes, It’s called trying to be ambitious with your passing Arseblog, maybe you like boring side to side 99% passing accuracy
7 seems pretty reasonable for one of our better players when no one played brilliantly…
I think the fact he can’t do more than 60-65 mins is a bit of a problem. It’s hard to get too elated when he only ever plays two thirds of the game.
How is it a problem that he can only do 70minutes, please explain?
Game lasts 90 minutes plus ET these days.
If you run yourself into the ground and have to come off that’s preferable to me than ambling around the pitch for 90 minutes.
Well it would be nice if he could do the whole game now and then. I can’t think of another player in the premier league that can’t play 90 mins even when fully fit.
It’s not really a criticism. If he can’t do it, he can’t do it. But it may affect his rating if, by the 60th minute, he’s puffing and panting like me climbing the stairs.
I agree, 90 mins would be great, but he is really putting a shift in. I’d rather have 70 mins of that high energy than 90 mins of more moderate. Also, we have decent options on the bench to come in for him after he’s spent himself. Finally, he hasn’t been playing much at all for quite a while, so perhaps his stamina will grow as his game time grows. We all know game form is different than practice form. Different level of energy and mental stress required. Seeing as we have 3 subs, I’m perfectly happy if 1 or… Read more »
It is the managers decision and .any games I would have easily taken Auba off as if he isn’t at the end of a move he provides little else. Guess that is why he will always have extra energy. Laca makes things flow and happen positively for the most part.
Good points in between some fuckups.
Laca is the most frustrating player to watch on arsenal right now he doesn’t try very hard, can’t seem to hit the target and all he does is flop. I’d be fine with seeing him go in January
That’s a weird way to spell Aubameyang. 🤕
That’s harsh on our captain. He is not lack of effort.
… must be commenting on his Fifa save. Not what I see from him, the lad only goes one way.. forward.
Don’t let facts get in the way of a good rant…
@Gunner08 I’m not sure I agree with you. Laca seems to be the only player on the pitch up to 60th minute that is so tenacious off the ball and when challenging 50-50s. His style of play really gets to the opponents because he’s always somehow managed to stick a foot out on the ball first and then hence always got kicked/stepped/smacked/poked/assaulted/barged/etc.
That’s a baffling comment. All I see is work rate from Laca. He runs his socks off trying to force mistakes by the opposition and keeping up the intensity. The problem is that he can’t sustain it for 90 minutes like Tierney. The good thing is that we can swap him out for Martinelli who can also provide intensity but the problem is that we always need to eventually take Laca off. If we have a game where we pick up early injuries and are forced to make substitutions we can’t rely on him not to be clapped out by… Read more »
He should have taken the penalty for he is better at it than Aubameyang.
I’m sure blogs will talk up Odgaard starting again despite his poor ‘form’ which has lasted about 5 months now but when he came on, had 16 touches, attempted 10 passes with 50% success rate. He doesn’t offer enough, never has.
This is such rubbish. He should have had a goal within 5 mins of coming on, distributed and pressed brilliantly. The fact he can’t get in the starting line-up is because Smith-Rowe is on fire. But he is class and we’re lucky to have him.
Not to mention that he and Martinelli wasted what must have seemed to Watford supports like 5 minutes by the corner flag in extra time.
If Blogs is going to criticise Lacca for passing stats then talk up a replacement with worse passing stats I don’t see that as bullshit… Should’ve would’ve etc he didn’t score.
True dat. Laca gets dinged every week regardless of performance. But it’s been like that for years…!
Next time we encounter rose we need to kick him until he’s black and blue. Fuck that guy.
He’s already black though
Nope.
He’s not black?
Do Fuck Right Off
Benefit of the doubt as English may not be your first language, but the phrase “black and blue” does not refer to race. For you to segue into calling someone out based on their race is not acceptable.
Is it acceptable to talk about kicking someone until they are severely bruised??
Its absolutely not and Adams9802 should fuck right off along with inflated sense of moral superiority
No, I understood what he said. I then make a silly joke, but somebody clearly pissed on this guy’s breakfast. I love how making a threat to batter a guy is cool, but a tongue in cheek joke is not.
One’s person’s hyperbole can be another person’s literal truth, same as how one person’s silly joke can be an inappropriate comment
Dude, it’s making a joke about someone’s skin colour. It’s racist. It’s not nice to threaten to kick Danny Rose, but it’s really shitty to suggest being black is a punishment of some sort. So sad to still read these sorts of comments after the level of exposure anti-racism has been getting.
That comment made me laugh. Racism is a horrible thing, and there is no room for it. But I don’t understand how calling a black guy black is racist. Where did he “suggest being black is a punishment of some sort”? It may have been a dumb joke but I don’t believe it was malicious in any way. You are reading subtext that isn’t there.
The subtext is the issue though isn’t it? Some people see it and others don’t, which seems to give rise to disagreement among people on here.
Not to harp on but this is classic gaslighting. The ‘joke’ appears to be that violent aggression against someone who is Black wouldn’t matter, or would be futile, because they are already ‘black’ – the epitome of an underhanded racist joke. It makes me shudder just spelling this out. Please don’t fool yourselves into thinking if you personally can’t see the racist sentiment, that it’s not there. Please understand that a joke about skin colour is essentially inherently racist and know that you will be called out on it.
We live in a time where everyone is serially offended on behalf of everyone else for some reason. Unfortunate that jokes in bad taste can’t just be dismissed and people move on. Careful though people are in jail for the written word on social media.
Maybe it’s too much to ask that people don’t do it because they know it’s wrong and unnecessary rather than because the consequence might be going to jail. “For some reason” – I don’t want to make assumptions but that comes across as a sentiment of someone who hasn’t borne the brunt of these things in the past. If you have been on the receiving end, then I feel sorry that this is your stance. If you don’t know the reason, it’s that people are tired of accepting these things as if they don’t matter, of brushing it off, of… Read more »
It’s a joke, not a dick, don’t take it so hard.
@Cygan’sbaldspot that was just a ridiculous comment, look I am one who thinks taking the knee has run its course, but then a clown like you comes along and make me wonder…
Nuno is a final ball / shot away from being an exceptional full back. Just a bit hot headed in the final third. But a very positive guy to have on the field. You could not ask a single thing more from a backup left back.
Probably a starter at this point. His pace and forward movement may keep Tierney away for minute.
Tierney’s crosses can be amazing but not so useful as our forwards have no arial presence.
Absolutely love how he drives foward and how powerful he is when getting back. Just a tad too strong with his first touches that took it away from him a couple of times but once that’s brushed up, he’ll be a supernova.
2 beautiful crosses from Tavares today. He was just tired with that late mishit when Aubameyang gave him a ticking off.
I love his enthusiasm but TBH I’m a bit worried about him playing at Liverpool. He’s a bit too adventurous and they are quite good attacking down that side. Should Tierney not return in time, Tavares might need to curb himself a bit for a game.
He reminds me of alfonso davies
I have been thinking the same and that’s a huge compliment I watch alot of Bayern and Davies is an incredible player. I was going to post the same view bro.
I can definitely see the similarities. Except Davies is lighting fast and seems to have a better final ball. But Tavares has been surprisingly good. There is potential there and think he can even play a role ahead of Tierney when they are both on the pitch.
He also deserved 7.5 like the rest of the defense. If you ask me he is starter for sure. What he has is natural and KT looks more trained and learned player. Nuno is faster,better in aerial duels and he has to play to evolve. KT already played more then 50 games for us and I would like to see Nuno after same number of games in his legs. But he needs to get them.
Was a very weird performance by the referee today. Wasn’t a pretty win and of course we could have secured it but it’s really nice to finally be able to grind out results like this. 5th! COYG
The ref was shite. Not biased for once just crap.
Gave out random yellow cards in lieu of actually having control of the game.
Half time foul count;
Arsenal 3 fouls 2 yellow cards
Watford 12 fouls 2 yellow cards
Thought he was alright really. Issue was Watford…
Looks like we really made our fouls count…
Sounds daft after yet another win and clean sheet, but we really do need to put games to bed.
Odegaard did. Auba was just being dumb and wanted the goal for himself
Bit harsh for Tavares I feel, was immense
Me too. Still trying to understand why the Benfica fans were so pleased to see him go.
That was more due to his off field issues tbh
I think it comes with the territory of being excellent at getting into goalscoring positions that there will inevitably come a day on which you look a fool, and Auba’s fixed grimace after denying Odegaard that goal very clearly said ‘Oh it’s today, is it?’
Lacazette exposes aubameyang’s awful work rate…we also missed the metronomic effect of partey.. Maitland Niles was decent but doesn’t pass forward enough…I would like to see last season’s Kieran Tierney support the attack…all kudos to Tavares for also being a fantastic defender
Ainsley did from where I was sitting. Ainsley was MOTM and if he’d taken the penalty he’d have likely scored in style. Lovely to see him getting a full game.
I think Blogs got it right – AMN and ESR were our best two players. And I am personally delighted for AMN. He was winning so many tackles, sweeping up loose balls, hit some great passes and his positioning seemed right on. Well done mate! We’ll need him during Africa Cup of Nations and if he keeps playing like today, we’ll use him before then.
Same here. Maybe Funsho was sitting facing the other direction
I am the first one to point at a thing or two that I thought didn’t work well even in a win, but these critiques of yours I feel are unwarranted… If there’s one thing you can’t blame Auba for today its the shift he put in, there’s one moment in particular that I remember, think the game clock was in late 70’s or so, when he prevented a Watford guy from having a shot at the ball from the edge of our box in a situation which looked like it could’ve ended badly for us… had a shocker otherwise… Read more »
We need a new forward in jan.
We have a good one from Brazil on the bench.
Aint that the truth!
He prolly meant Striker, how about Jovic loan to buy?
Aubameyang was beyond poor. Needs a rocket.
He had a bad game. It happens sometimes. But I don’t ever feel comfortable w him taking the PKs.
My comment was agreeing with Cagooner.. sorry
Agreed, we been raving about his work rate in last few games, getting back. chasing down, leading the line, doing defending and being a leader.. has one bad day, on a day when we won and comfortably… and everyone is all over him like a rash…
We missed Thomas Partey today. Deserved 3 points though. Up to 5th; onwards and upwards.
Auba doesn’t deserve to be on the starting 11. He cannot control, pass and can’t even score anymore. Laca has a lower success ratio of pass completion as he is task to make the killer pass. Tavares is a beast, Tomiyaki is a machine, ESR on another level. Our midfield and defence are robust. Love that team.
Sometimes it all goes wrong for a player. Today was that day for Auba
Emile Smith Rowe. What a player we have on our books.
Seems to have a Lampardesque knack for getting to those second balls in the oppositon’s final third, doesn’t he?
And on top of that he’s putting them in to boot, quite useful really… 😉
Really? Lampardesque?? Couldn’t have gone with Ramsey? Ljungberg?
I don’t want to be harsh but the bare mention of that square headed, emoji-mouthed, Chelsea fuck is enough to put me off my Big Mac.
I’m 26, excuse me if Ljungberg isn’t the first name that pops into my mind when I think of goalscoring midfielders, and as for Ramsey, yes, he scored a bunch from the midfield, but I don’t remember him scoring too many like this, this kind of goal really is in the mould of Lampard more than anyone else in recent memory for sure. Besides, if you’re so butthurt about former players that you don’t like, that you can’t even acknowledge that they did what they did and had the kind of careers that they had, then that’s your problem. I’m… Read more »
You rinsed him. We all have different reference points yours are highly apt. Lampard is the archetypal goalscoring midfielder of the Premier League era. Also my family have met Frank a number of times and he is an absolute gentleman and one of the good guys. Anyone who can’t appreciate the wider footballing world then their own club is missing out.
Furthermore Ljungberg’s goals were typically threaded through balls from Dennis as Freddie made clever diagonal runs across the pitch in behind the opponent’s defence rather than these Lampard esque finishes which Smith Road is replicating.
*Rowe
Jeez Cyril. If you love Lampard so much why don’t you just marry him and have pudgy, square headed babies together?
Cheers mate 🙂
Glad to see there are people out there capable of recognising and acknowledging quality outside themselves and the narrow spectre of that they inhabit or relate with.
Bro, it was clearly a joke. Take the angst down a notch. A stroke at 26 is not a good look.
If that was a movie, Auba would be the undercover villain. Nonetheless, 3 points and here comes the interlull (but why 😢)
I’ll take it, gives Xhaka some time to recover without the games passing him by, whatever a lot of the fans say, we could use some decent depth in that midfield… some time for Tierney and Partey to put their injuries fully past them too I guess, the timing could be worse I reckon.
It’s a game we should have scored 3 or 4 in.
How many times have we gone on to drop points in that sort of game?
In other news… We no longer have a negative GD!
don’t enjoy the ratings at all lately, sorry. 7 and 8’s are given out far too easily. concede a freak equaliser at the end that shouldn’t have stood and they’re all 5-6 instead.
But we didn’t hence the 7s and 8s
Probably explains the 5 average for Aube. I had him at 2,5 and I was seeing generous.
My fault. In my relief I forgot everything that pissed me off and gave him a 7. And I still love him.
You win until you draw or lose, that’s how it works.
Actually you draw until you win or lose, but I know what you meant
Or score both of our two 90% chances (the penalty, the Odegaard shot) or one of our several good chances, and it’s 4-0. Then everyone gets a nine. Relax.
Like what im seeing on the backline. We look really assuring from the back. The attack though.. definitely need to improve. It gets too routine at times. As for the penalty, maybe AMN or Laca should take. 3 points today. Great wkend.
Is it time to drop Auba?
He’s not scoring.
He’s not adding to play.
He’s not good at pens.
He’s not holding up.
He’s not assisting.
And He’s now getting in the way.
Nice poem.
Nah, I like my poems to rhyme
Well I guess not all of the time
It’s ok on occasion
In a poem’s cessation
If you call Harry Kane a cunt.
But, agreed, maybe he needs a break.
He gets a break every midweek…
I’m really enjoying the impact Tomiyasu has made on our defence, especially when you compare him to how poor Emerson Royale with Cheese is doing!
AMN had a solid game, neat in possession. Loved seeing him like that! Hope he gets more of an outlet even when Partey, Xhaka are back. Worked really hard!
Benjamin White was impressive today.
Ainsley had a good game, but Partey was missed.
Thought Saka had the best of their full back all game and should have got a assist. Also Elneny wasn’t on the pitch for long, but once he came on we got back a bit of control of the game.
Really good 3 points considering Watfords game plan ( rotational fouling & falling over to disrupt play) & the lax reffing. Watford 19 fouls = 2 yellow cards….Arsenal 6 fouls = 4 yellow cards.
Tavares was the best player on the pitch. Don’t also overlook that. Ben White & Gabriel were solid too.
Elnenny should have been on the entire game instead of Maitland-Niles
Tavares was one of the best performers not the best. The kid is much more than just a backup to Tierney. Comments by those saying now that Tavares is playing well Tierney should be sold are ridiculous, so are comments that now that Tierney is back, Tavares should be relegated to the bench because he is nothing but cover for Tierney. Tierney should wait for his turn. For now Tavares should play till he is either off form, suspended, or injured. It does not matter whether he has only 4 minutes of premier league experience. As long as he is… Read more »
Danny Rose obviously has pictures of Kevin Friend blowing a goat
I would like to see Auba benched next game. Move Laca to striker and put Ode in the number 10 position.
or nketiah front
Slightly off topic, but has Josh King always been that dislikable? Never noticed him before but was really grinding my gears today.
Big shout out to AMN, stepped in really well. Was worried when I saw the team sheet but he was excellent
Lokonga was lost without Partey. He was 5 today. Weird rating from arseblog
I game him a 6.0 today, meaning that he was slightly underwhelming for me, but I’m with you on Lokonga, generally speaking I think our fanbase has definitely overrated his performances so far. I don’t see him as being at the level required of a starter in the Arsenal midfield with what he’s been doing so far, too much balls taken of him in dangerous areas and suspicious passes for my taste, not there physically yet too, but he can become more of a unit if he hits the gym. There’s something there though, he can hit a long pass,… Read more »
I couldn’t disagree more. He is pedigree.
Great game
I feel the big development going under the radar a little bit is Saka…
Ever since the start of the season he just looked like he’s lacking that spark for me, not like he’s not trying, more like something’s just not there… but in the Leicester game last weekend, I thought he was real sharp, and even if he didn’t come up with a goal contribution, he just looked sharp to me today again… I might be wrong, but watch this space, cause I think he’s about to have a bit of a purple patch. 🙂
Completely agree with you!
Would add a 10/10 bonus rating to Josh Kroenke for looking exceptionally evil
Well if its rubbing off on players the way it is with us showing a bit of a mean streak, taking that throw in when Watford guys were ready to chill out and needlessly waste a minute or two, and then scoring from the action right after, then I’ll take it 😉
I’m digging that beard, he is one cool gent.
Good result today. We looked like a different team in the 1st half of the 2nd half.
Once Lacazette got subbed off, we dropped so much. It slightly worries me that when he has come off in the last 3 matches, our control of games have suffered.
We need to find someone that matches his aggression, tenacity and someone who links the midfield with strike.
Yep, Ive always been a big fan of Laca!
We played with heart today and got the win. Credit to Emile smith Rowe for stepping up yet again he is playing like the best player on this team right now. How was Danny rose not getting a card? Every 5 minutes he was shoving someone on Arsenal in the back.
Laca should be taking the penalties, not Auba. He’s much more clinical. Auba has shown many times that he’s not a great penalty taker.
Auba Penalty record for Gunners, made 10, missed 5. Shocking.
Laca, made 8 from 8, why would he not take it?!?
https://www.transfermarkt.com/pierre-emerick-aubameyang/elfmetertore/spieler/58864
Yes, who remembers Auba’s feeble penalty kick at Spurs a couple seasons ago that denied us victory in the closing stages of the game? And as I recall his next penalty kick in a following game was similarly feeble, right down the middle, though he was lucky enough to make it!
What I appreciated most today was that Watford was very, very physical and we responded by being physical back. Nobody backed out of a challenge and nobody backed down.
How did Danny Rose stay on the pitch? The tackle in which he took down Laca in the box was violent conduct, no? He tried to make it look like incidental contact but what was his right arm doing up neck high and fully extended? In addition, he’d committed a really snide foul just a few moments earlier that looked to warrant a yellow as well.
Team’s on a great run. It’s based on really strong defending. The defense is the foundation from which Arteta is building this new team. Gabriel, Ramsdale, and White are the core. All 23, they will get better and better. It’s hard not to see then devllelopingbintobonebofbthe defensive cores in the league.
Rather an odd conclusion to come to really given that the only players in our team who might sneak into the top four’s reserve sides are all attackers?
Good to know we can win dirty as well, without a doubt we woulda lost this game last season and previous ones. But really worried about aubameyang hopefully he pics up. Great weekend for me
Next game Odegaard should start instead of Auba
And when laca get tired bring martenelli
We should have been out of sight but Foster had a great game for them in goal. Massive props to AMN who had a really good game in midfield. It was “only Watford” but we wouldn’t have seen that performance from Elneny. The cheeky through ball to Laca in the box was really nice. The whole team did well today in general but we need to be more ruthless and got away with a Kos/Szcez style mix up. Auba had a stinker. His penalty was well hit but a comfortable height for the keeper, he should have been able to… Read more »
It’s time to push Lacazette forward, leave Auba out! Was he playing yesterday! and bring in Odegaard, the back five now looking very strong but really struggling with the other six.
A better side i’m sure would have equalised.
We really need to control games better.
Should have had the points put to bed long before the end but a combination of poor finishing, poor decision making and their goalie made for an uncomfortable final 6 minutes even against 10 men. Watford put the ball out of play due to an injury to Tufan and might have expected Arsenal to return it but they didn’t and ended up scoring in the aftermath of the resultant throw. Sarr, despite being the most irritating Watford player on the pitch was also clearly fouled by AMN in the build up to the goal so save the hypocrisy about our… Read more »
Once again… to the naysayers (who remain grudgingly quiet):
OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH!
Bit worried as we were only 1 goal ahead near the end, but it was a game which we have lost in previous seasons. AMN played really well,give him credit.
All round performance was great today. Tempered by a disjointed Watford side but they were robust in challenge so felt the young lads were more than up to the fight which was key. 1) Ramsdale – Largely uneventful for him but for a couple of close shots and then that one rush of blood which fortunately saw King miss the open target. Tries to hit us long and is good with delivery. 2) Tomiyasu – Another decent game with no nonsense defending. You do feel he’s the sort who relishes defending and not letting anything past him. But his height… Read more »