Yes he did, after joining the others from the commentary box. But during the game he said it was clearly a dive, he changed his mind. Deeney came across really well in the after game chat, I thought.
Also, in regards to the penalty - watch Bellerin's reaction - he does the usual finger wave just after it happened but then accepts it sheepishly. If it was a clear example of cheating, at a critical point in the game, I'm positive he'd have reacted differently. Surely he would have had words with Richarlison or run up to the ref - no-one would accept being clearly cheated so meekly. His reaction says to me that he knows he got beaten to the ball and made a challenge that in this day and age can be given as a penalty, even if it's soft as anything.
It was probably a 25% penalty, maybe 50%, and today it was our day and we got it. A little bit of balance in the ongoing debate about how small clubs like ours never get the marginal decisions against the big boys. We do of course, even if it doesn't feel like it sometimes. Personally I felt Welbeck 'dived' more than Richarlison did when he was clean through in the second half, but of course nothing was given. Heart in mouth time though. The penalty was Troy's first goal in 14 matches. That's 6 points now thanks to late goals this season. And 5 points from losing positions. (Liverpool, WBA, Arsenal) Arsenal join Swansea in that we've beaten them in all three of our PL seasons back, although one was in the cup of course.
Well that was a real game of two halves. Gomes absolutely brilliant. The new Greek competition must have helped. Iwobi save was excellent, when they showed the replay the whole Rookery applauded and then the Ozil one was fantastic. Holebas was bloody great. Now he's got a good team around him you can see why he was so angry last year, he just wanted better. Fabolous. Kiko was meh, first half in particular. Grew into it second. Kabasele, Mariappa & Britos all done what they had to do pretty well. When we went to a back 4 the defending was excellent, Arsenal threatened but I just had a decent feeling we'd see out the point (little did I know!!) Cleverley everywhere again and delighted for him that he scored. Doccoure is absolutely destined for a better team, no doubt about it. Him and Cleverley were miles better than Xhaka and Elneny! Richarlision what a frigging player. I think I love him, he loves a battle, skill, always available. Ahh beautiful. Penalty looked soft on first sight, have to watch replays. Pereyra was evidently a bit rusty. Missed the chance to play Gray through on two occasions I thought. Was decent out wide, better in the middle and then went missing. Rightly substituted. Still a class above. Gray was shocking, very low footballing IQ. Maybe tactics didn't suit him? Didn't win a header, shocking first touch, he looked like he had won a competition to play football today tbh. Deeney on the other hand, wonderful performance and it makes me SOO happy to say that after so long. Deeney of old, won all the headers, held it up, created, dragged the centre backs around, was a real menace and Arsenal shat themselves. Looks to have gained a bit of pace back. Love it!!!! Carillo I don't remember too much of. We are just fantastic to watch, second half Watford anyway, let's forget the first half happened even though we did control the first half for around 15 minutes). It could've been 0-3 to be honest and we've come away 2-1 winners with all 3 points! Silva made changes early, made every change I would've made sitting in the stands and I love that in a manager. What a season already!!! 4 points from Liverpool, City & Arsenal is great. Three last minute goals in a row, 4th after EIGHT games, goals, attacking intent, flexible manager, the positives keep on coming! This is what Saturday evenings should feel like, missed it so much, last season is nearly wiped from my brain. COYH!!! Chelsea are dodgy let's beat them too!!!
Absolutely. Trod the line perfectly between confidence and arrogance, something he's not always managed in the past. After today, that starting place should be his for a run of games - he was much, much better than Gray.
Brilliant and thoroughly deserved win! There was no player more deserving of getting the winner than Cleverley. Lots of comments bemoaning Silva's tactics before we equalised, very similar to the Swansea game, but yet again we come away with a win. Can't be a coincidence surely? I'm not one for blind faith in the manager, but I think he has earned the right to a bit more respect in his decision-making. Set up in a 4-2-3-1 from the start and I think they would have cut through us. As others have said it wasn't a penalty, but wasn't a dive either. Justice was done because we should have had a penalty minutes earlier for handball (Swarbrick bottled it by giving an Arsenal free-kick for a non-foul by Holebas). Speaking of Swarbrick, one particularly sad Arsenal fan seems to dislike him for some reason: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Swarbrick "Neil Swarbrick (born 20 December 1965) is an Arsenal-hating English professional football referee who officiates primarily in the Premier League having been promoted to the Select Group of Referees in 2011. He is based in Watford,and is a member of the Watford Fan Association.Watford had paid off the match during the halftime break. The agreement was very much like how he lived his life with his family. Biased and unworthy."
Bloody marvellous. Watched in a Warrington pub with a Liverpool fan ( we are above them!). I think the pub knew I was a Watford fan when Tom scored. Very proud of my team.
Exactly this. I felt that we were in the game throughout, that Arsenal offered little before they scored and I thought that though we hadn't created many clear chances, we had enough posession in dangerous areas, that I always felt if we took Gray off we'd have enough to get a goal or two. And I hate to bring it up again, but boy is he poor. I mean, he's just so out of his depth. There's only one thing that he can do and we need from him and that's to hang on the defender, just onside and then run onto balls over the top. Instead, he is always seemingly shocked when someone in the midfield plays such a ball and is already giving half a second and a yard's headstart to the defender. His touch is awful. He runs in the wrong direction. He can't pass, Can't beat players. He's a total dud. Other than that, Gomes had a great game. Good saves and a solid performance after a shaky showing vs. West Brom. Britos made some loose passes but was defensively excellent today. Welcome back. Holebas delivered another performance like West Brom. Perhaps having a 3rd rate understudy has spurred him on? He looks reborn. Maps and Kabasele both look better in a back three than a back 4. No idea what Kabasele was booked for. Kiko gave away posession cheaply a few times, but his pace also saved us a couple of times. Not his best game, but not terrible. Doucoure was back to his best for the first time since losing Chalobah as his running mate. Just excels in every department all over the pitch. Cleverley MOTM - outstanding. Totally deserved his goal. Outstanding. Richarlison - this is a player who creates problems for opposing defenders every game. It's a minor gripe, but if he sorts out his decision making, he'll be creating 2-3 goals per game based on the positions he gets into. He's a £10m player in the making. Pereyra - don't get the criticism of him earlier in the thread - thought he looked class. Went off at the right time. Grey - just awful. So out of his depth. In a completely different league to the rest of his teammates in this 11. He's nowhere near good enough. Every attack breaks down because of him. Deeney - Captain fantastic - must start vs. Chelsea. Looked completely up for it and invigorated and deserved a goal. Carillo - did OK, but didn't materially change the game. Capoue - shot created the opening for the winner. Buzzed about eagerly and showed willing. I'm a bit sickened to hear about the discussions surrounding the penalty. If that had been any of the Arsenal players it wouldn't get a further mention, let alone discussions about a retrospective ban. The bias is heavy here. What we have is a player running at full pelt who went down. Yes it's a soft penalty but we've been the victim of countless incidents worse over the years and nobody mentioned it in the aftermath. What's more, we should've had what looked like a stonewall penalty to me, for handball, just before we hit the post. I was in the vic road end and sort an arm up, pushing away a Rich cross. If there is a retrospective ban then the game is loaded. There's absolutely no justification for it. Sure it's a soft one and Arsenal fans might feel agreived, but there is no justification for punishment, unless they do the same to every player in a similar situation (eg. n0. 17 for them and Wellbeck both went down softly looking for penalties when they had lost the ball). Overall, I felt we deserved the win and were the better side. I loved the football we played. I didn't have a problem with 5 at the back as it seemed a pragmatic solution to the threat Arsenal posed, though we needed something a little more sharp at the other end than Gray who was ****. Did I mention Gray is ****? He is. He is ****.
Gomes - fantastic Kabesele - fantastic Cleverley - fantastic Mapps - fantastic Britos - fantastic Holebas - fantastic Richarlison - fantastic Deeney - fantastic Docoure - fantastic The rest were only brilliant
To be fair to Gray, we should have been trying to get him 1 on 1 with mertesacker and we never managed it
Surprised to find all the moaning on here in the first half. But, maybe it looks different on TV and you don't feel so detached when you're at the game. Don't think we should underestimate the first half performance; we made Arsenal look average, and closed them down well, and generally defended well (compared to the last couple of seasons). Brilliant commitment in the second half, though. Like others, so pleased to see Troy inspiring the team and being at the centre of so much. As others have also said, Gomes was brilliant today. And, have to agree - Troy has to be first choice over Gray - but, then, maybe using both of them in matches like that is to our advantage.
Mariappa had a good game I think; just didn't look comfortable getting the ball as often as he did! Pereyra disappointing by his standards. Doucoure and Cleverley as good as they have been all season. Their energy and reading of the game was imvaluable. Deeney completely changed the game. Superb performance and everything we want from our leader and talisman. He battled, bullied their defence and was generally such a nuisance. Showed his value. Gomes my MotM for his two saves in the second half. Stayed vigilant and that was a massive moment. In the doghouse with my gooner girlfriend for my exuberant celebrations but that was worth it! Best game at the Vic in such a long time!
Watched the Arsenal Fan TV getting recorded, it was so funny. That DT is a *****, he said "Luton are a bigger club than Watford" hahahahaha Love Troopz though.
The Arse have no backbone...it's an open secret. Teams like us and Stoke and WBA bully them. Their fans are right about Wenger, once an innovator now a dinosaur. Silva played a blinder with the formation changes and subs. We played to the very end and got our just reward. Every player gave their all so no criticism from me. Most enjoyable game at the Vic since we beat Manure last season.
The 343 didn't work, it was far too congested in the wide areas and left Gray isolated. Both wing backs a little confused and generally sloppy in possession, but Holebas kept going till the end even though things didn't come off for him. Only a couple of really good performances from Doucoure and Cleverley kept us in the game until the switch to 4231 I thought. The 50/50 marking system at corners is fine, but i'd rather have the center backs man-to-man on the oppo's best headers. Gray's anticipation is poor and he needs to learn to time his jumps better, because he's usually going to be giving away (at least) 3 or 4 inches to the oppo's CBs. I don't know when Okaka's mysterious suspension finishes but he's been missed as an option. Charly wonderful yet again and Deeney changed the game. Mapps excellent 1st half, Britos didn't really look comfortable until Giroud came on and they went more direct. It wasn't a penalty but any sort of contact at that speed should preclude any sort of ban for diving. Arsenal an absolute shadow of their former selves - they should get use to the idea of the Europa league for the foreseeable future.
I have to agree. Gray seems to be the 17/18 scapegoat amongst those who feel the need for such a thing, and whilst criticisms of his touch could be justified in previous weeks, I actually think it was decent today on the rare occasions he got on the ball. Of course strikers have to make their own impact on the game, but they also need service, and it was non-existent for him today.
What a fantastic 2nd half. i thought after about 30/35 minutes of the first half we had run out of puff and ideas and hten they went and scored. I felt sorry for Grey. the service he was getting was awful at times, pumping balls up for him to head against a 7ft 4inch German was pointless. Saying that he lacks a lot of anticipation and spacial awareness. If you're not going to win the headers then play off the defenders shoulder, pull them wider to create space. The game changed when Deeney came on. He scared the living **** out of them and they started to panic. It looked like a penalty at the time. i though Bellerin leaned into him, but haven't seen a replay yet. In the last 10 minutes Arsenal would have taken a draw and we finally, after pinning them in, got the goal that had been coming. What a bloody great time to be a Watford supporter.
No doubt Wenger and the media will point to the penalty incident as what changed the game but certainly in the second half we really took the game to Arsenal after a fairly even first during which we were just caught out with poor marking from the corner. True Gomes saved us a couple of times but once we scored only looked like one team going to win and thankfully once again we came up trumps! Very good tactical change for Silva once more bringing Deeney on. Dominated midfield 2nd half and I'd say probably deserved to win in the end.
Probably because he was always on his heels, making no attempt to find space away from the intelligent but immobile Mertesacker
The question of service is a lazy excuse for a poor player. Whenever the ball gets into a position where Peyreyra, Richarlison, Doucoure or Cleverly can create something, the most available target was always another one of those three, not our main striking outlet, who is always happily in his back to defender position, which is pointless, because he can't play with his back to goal for ****. Several times balls went over the top into space, but he was always too slow to start his run and has no anticipation. He's completley not of the calibre of this team. He's a clogging, championship quality striker and buying him was a mistake. We need better.
Just seen the pen. It's soft, but not a dive. If you get a shoulder to shoulder running full speed it's quite easy to fall over. If an Arsenal player got that pen there'd be no discussion.
Spot on. Even minimal contact when running at full pelt equals a pen. Bellerin was caught on his heels by Richarlison's acceleration. He knew it instinctively. The referee checked with the other officials before pointing to the spot. That's good enough for me.
I remember some of the elders on here telling us that when we beat Spurs in the season we finished 2nd, that's when the media really turned on us. Now I'm not saying we're gonna have that kind of a season again, but that Richarlison soft penalty (not a dive but a soft penalty, ffs those blind twunts who are pundits can't see the knee-to-knee contact) and this game is going to be that moment where the media will turn against us again
Arsenal dont like it up 'em. Bunch of flakes and so are their fans. Worst away support by a mile. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.in...arsene-wenger-west-bromwich-a7967146.html?amp
