Arsenal Vs Watford: Rubbish, rubbish, wonderful

Arsenal were utterly rubbish against Watford on Monday night. In almost every sense, their performance was extremely lacking. And yet, at the end of it all, it was a wonderful match.

Arsenal travelled to Watford on Monday night looking for just their third away match since the start of 2019, the first two coming against Huddersfield Town, the worst team in the Premier League, and League One opposition Blackpool in the third round of the FA Cup. Few were confident about prior to kick off.

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The first five minutes did little to change that. Watford dominated the opening stanzas, pressuring their visitors with a series of crosses into the box, not allowing them many opportunities to counter either. And then, suddenly, and rather fortuitously, the game changed on its head in just 27 seconds.

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First, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang chased down an errant Ben Foster touch to block a clearance into an empty goal. And then, just 27 seconds after the restart, Troy Deeney, obviously in an attempt to rough up the Gunners, left a stray elbow on Lucas Torreira and saw red thanks to the assistant referee’s eagle eye.

That would be enough to see Arsenal through to the victory. The remaining 80 minutes were extremely tight, with Watford dominating for extended periods thanks to high energy in midfield, before ceding possession at times thanks to the man disadvantage.

But come full-time, the performance mattered little. As Unai Emery stated in his post-match press conference, there was only one development that took the greatest importance:

"“The three points is I think the most important thing today.”"

Let’s be clear here. This was an extremely poor Arsenal performance. Playing against ten men, with a goal lead to defend, they lacked any semblance of control and composure. They were consistently unable to take command of the midfield, despite Emery packing it with numbers, and Aubameyang grew increasingly isolated as the lone centre-forward.

The only proof that you need that the performance was rubbish is Emery’s selection gymnastics in the second half, first introducing Mesut Ozil, then temporarily switching to a back three with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi at the wing-back positions, before turning to a 4-1-4-1 for the final 20 minutes or so. Emery was not happy with his team and was going to increasingly desperate lengths to solve their problems.

But by full-time, all of this rubbish became obsolete. At this stage in the season, there is only thing that counts, the result. And for Arsenal, this was a critically brilliant win. They moved into fourth position, already ahead of Chelsea with a game-in-hand over the Blues, and just one point behind Spurs, who still have to play Manchester City. Moreover, Manchester United also must still play City, while they and Chelsea will face one another next weekend.

Suddenly, a top-four finish is within grasp. It is likely that if Emery and his players win their two home games and two of the away games, they will secure Champions League qualification. And that would be a sensational achievement.