Watford 2-1 Arsenal: Hornets Deliver Classic Sting

There are numerous reasons why football is the most popular sport on the planet and why the Premier League remains far ahead of all other leagues when it comes to popularity.

If anyone is in any doubt what these reasons might be then they should have attended this match. The tale is a familiar one, the city slickers come into town, toying with their poorer cousins until the dramatic twist in the plot sees the unfancied underdogs coming out on top.

City Slickers

Although this Arsenal team is far from being the slickest of the city slickers, they still dominated for 80% of the game but somehow ended up defeated.

Mertesacker opened the scoring just before half time powering in an header from a corner that flew past the keeper. Can't remember the last time he scored for us, but with his height you would expect him to have scored many similar goals over the years.

Chance, Chance, Chance Galore

Thereafter, Arsenal wasted three excellent opportunities to increase the lead and put the game beyond Watford.

First culprit was Bellerin who flashed a shot wide from the penalty box. He had time and little pressure so should have taken more care with the shot.

Awobi followed with the type of finishing that makes you shout "just smash it". Thierry Henry was an expert at the opening of the body followed by a slide rule shot wide of the keeper and hitting the inside of the net (which Awobi tried). But he drove me mad with those finishes and I bet if anyone goes back and looks through the tapes he missed more of those types of shots than he actually scored.

Ozil completed the trio of missed opportunities giving the keeper the opportunity to make a save by hitting a weak shot that was too close to him. When you get a chance inside the six yard area, you will surely have a higher probability of scoring by hitting the ball as hard as you can, power over precision when you're that close to the goal.

Sting in the tail

Watford made Arsenal pay for the missed opportunities. They were fortuitously awarded a penalty when Bellerin was adjudged to have tripped the winger going past him. It was a soft penalty, but Bellerin was outpaced and again the attempted tackle was too casual.

The winner came deep into injury time after some ping pong in the Arsenal area. The goal was bad enough but seeing so many Arsenal players not busting a gut to get in the box to see out the game was more concerning.

Some thoughts and Next Up

Looking at the Arsenal line up before kick-off, the first thought that crossed my mind was how weak the team looked on paper. There was not a single player that I considered World Class or a superstar or had attributes that could terrify the opposition.

The title is not an impossibility, but its becoming more improbable as the number of away defeats increases. The most optimistic scenario for this team is a top four finish and a cup win.

Next up are two more away games - Red Star Belgrade in the UEFA Cup and Everton in the league.