Arsenal 4-1 Watford: 4 talking points from pre-season win

Arsenal have secured back to back victories in pre-season! Not only that, they’ve netted eight goals en route! You know what they say about home comforts, eh? Might be worth asking if London Colney can host instead of the Emirates next season…

It’s another win for Mikel Arteta’s side and another 4-1 success. Watford very kindly made themselves available to take on Arsenal following the cancellation of their USA tour, hopping over the fence to their neighbours’ home on Wednesday.

Most notable from the starting lineup were outings for both new signings, Nuno Tavares and Albert Sambi Lokonga, who given their chance to impress alongside Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah.

It was the latter who fired the hosts in front in with a fine individual effort. Willian had fed Nketiah down the line and the striker, playing on the left wing, cut inside his man before curling a lovely low effort in off the post.

Arsenal 4-1 Watford: 4 talking points from pre-season win as Arteta watches Nketiah, Lacazette, Tierney and Azeez get on the scoresheet

Watford were gifted a route back in when Mohamed Elneny got caught in possession inside his own area before Philip Zinckernagel converted from close range.

Arsenal dominated after the break but were unable to convert that into meaningful opportunities, having to wait until the 70th minute when Alexandre Lacazette tucked away from the penalty spot after Ainsley Maitland-Niles was felled.

Shortly after, Emile Smith Rowe sent a dangerous cross in from the right wing that found its way into Kieran Tierney’s path, with the Scot setting himself before slamming a half-volley into the roof of the net.

The win was wrapped up via the left foot of Miguel Azeez, who bent a delightful effort on his weak foot into the far corner to make it all smiles down at Colney.

An enjoyable day all round, with a few talking points that followed.

1. Nuno Tavares is Still Very Raw

There is a tactical tweak that usually involves Granit Xhaka that has been entrusted onto Mohamed Elneny during pre-season, one designed to free up the left-back to play as an auxiliary winger.

Dropping into a left centre-back slot in a back three it allows, in this case Nuno Tavares, to play very advanced and support his fellow forward.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a strong 45 minutes and was actually guilty of quite a lot of sloppy play on the ball, especially in the opening 20 or so minutes. For someone who arrived being labelled as a player with high technical quality, he disappointed. Some of his footwork looked clunky.

You know what else? It doesn’t matter. It’s very early days and only his second start in red and white. He’s a talent who is still very raw and when you’re buying someone to come in and be developed into a potential starter in the future, or even to make some profit on him, these sorts of issue iron themselves out.

There is still real strength in his strides and some of his flicks did pull off, while he also made one very strong recovery challenge.

As his fitness improves and confidence grows, so will his ball control. As for positioning and the like, that’s what these matches are for. He’s learning.