Arsenal Vs Watford: Will cojones lead to consistency?

Arsenal showed ‘cojones’ in their win against AC Milan on Thursday night. As they prepare to face Watford in the Premier League on Sunday, can said cojones now yield consistency?

After Arsenal succumbed to yet another away loss in which their character was battered out of them, leaving just a whimper behind, Troy Deeney, the man who had turned the game on its head after his bruising frame was introduced from the bench, accused them of lacking ‘cojones’. He was, in all fairness, right.

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Since that time, those that lack the basic male anatomy, according to Deeney, have shown that they do, indeed, lack the basic male anatomy. Or at least that was the case until Thursday night.

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A European trip to the daunting San Siro. Coming off a run of four losses, the worst period of form in 16 years. Playing a team that were unbeaten in 13 matches, invigorated by a legend now turned manager. This was hardly a nice game. And yet, coolly, calmly, ruthlessly, the Gunners went to Milan and produced the ideal away display: Resolute and disciplined defensively; pacy, precise, and clinical in attack, scoring two first-half goals that could well have ended the tie before it ever really got going.

But cojones are not enough. In fact, neither is quality. It has often been the case for Arsenal that they are a team who lack mental resolve but can overcome such a shortcoming because of their unrivalled technical skill. But that is no longer true either. Not only are they mentally soft but they are also, a lot of time, just a bad team.

That stems, primarily, from their inconsistency. This is a team with great variance, one week glistening with wonderful, free-flowing football, the next, slumping, slouching their way to utter disaster.

And now, nearly six months later, Wenger and his players again face Deeney and Watford. It is not, in and of itself, a chance to prove that this is a now consistent team. Consistency does not come in the singular, it comes in repetition. Having said that, this would be the type of game in which Wenger’s players would fold, complacently overlooking their opponents after coming down from the high of the midweek. This is a chance, then, to prove their mentality is different, at least for now.

As the season progresses, rising towards its climax, both domestically and on the European stage, it will be important for the North London outfit to show that they can be simply steady. It is often a misunderstood attribute that can be seen as mediocre, but being solid, reliable, dependable, replicable, is extremely important across a long and turbulent season.

Next: Arsenal Vs Watford: 5 key players to watch

It is something that Arsenal most certainly are not. They will not prove otherwise in one game, but they can at least show signs that the recovery is not just a fleeting enjoyment.