Kevin, You are Nobody's Friend!

Arsenal's 1-0 win over Watford - a scoreline that by no means tells the whole story - has been overshadowed by a little controversy. I'm not sure that even the most die-hard Watford fan can truly begrudge Arsenal the three points based on the pattern of the game, but the moments leading up to the winning goal left some questions to be answered; and I shall attempt to do so below.

A very good friend of mine is a Watford season ticket holder. And he likes to go on - a lot! - about the 'dark arts' allegedly perpetrated by the evil that is... AFC Bournemouth(!?!). I'm not sure that anyone else has noticed tbh. 

Anyway, I have advised him to take a look a little closer to home after Sunday's Ranieri-inspired performance by his team. 19 fouls committed during the course of the game, many of which went unaccountably unpunished by way of a card by the utterly ineffective Kevin Friend - who must, in my opinion, take much of the responsibility for the way the match panned out.

Friend failed to punish (the somewhat rotund these days) Danny Rose for a series of assaults on Arsenal players - the one on Lacazette for the penalty was perhaps in itself worthy of a red card, let alone a yellow - and also let Josh King get away with plenty after his first-minute booking for an elbow swung into Gabriel's face. Kucka, who finally received his marching orders late on, was another who had a somewhat 'robust' game, and it was clear that Watford were intent on roughing Arsenal up at every opportunity, and on a rotational basis - aided and abetted by the pathetic efforts of Friend to keep control (yet Arsenal 6 fouls committed; 4 bookings - need I say more?).

Here's a little montage of Rose's 'tackle' for the penalty - no card of any colour (and a 5 second delay before Friend awarded it!):

Friend's inability to stamp down on Watford's shithousery from early on merely encouraged them to keep at it, and prevented a free-flowing game of football from breaking out. Arsenal, admittedly, were not at their best by any means, and were frequently berated by the crowd for not moving the ball quickly enough. But they certainly had enough possession - and enough chances - to have won the game considerably more comfortably than they did.

And for that I'm afraid that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang must take a fair deal of responsibility. He worked very hard - as has been his wont for much of this season - but very little went right for him. It was his mis-control that led to the ball breaking to Bukayo Saka in the fifth minute to strike home from an offside position - he ought to have scored himself. He missed his second successive penalty - top save by Foster, who had a terrific game (he needed to, to be honest), to be fair - when the crowd were hoping that Laca would take it (although he was probably groggy after Rose's attack!). And he diverted a late goal-bound shot from Odegaard into the net from an offside position. He will assuredly have better days.

Anyway, there can be no doubt that Arsenal deserved to win, but that it came about in the way it did was a little unfortunate. Watford's shithousery had just started to include going down and feigning injury - to add to the rotational fouling - and from one of those instances Rose played the ball into touch. However, by the time he had done that Tufan had 'struggled' to his feet (he'd barely been touched, by the way) and Arsenal decided not to return the ball. They would have done had he been actually injured, I'm sure. 15 seconds later, the ball was in the net - well-taken by ESR by the way; he's getting onto the score sheet as regularly as the best attacking midfielders have ever done. But not before Watford had one or two opportunities to clear - and no, that wasn't a foul, Watford fans; it was a 'coming together' (VAR agreed on that).

And to be fair, for all their gamesmanship throughout the game it's nothing less than Watford deserved. Because what they did deserve from the game was zero points. One shot on target - in the 83rd minute - under 40% possession - and a foul count to be ashamed of. Fortunately for them there are some really poor sides in the Premier League this season, and they may therefore survive. But they're not very good. They're certainly got a better chance of surviving under this manager than the previous one, but judging by the trigger-happy nature of their owners I can't envisage what might happen if - as all known form indicates - they lose their next 4 league games.

A word here for Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who was drafted into the side for the injured Thomas Partey and had a man-of-the-match performance. More grist to the mill, and reliable cover for January's AFCON departure nightmare. Good luck to him.

The other stand-out player for me was Ben(jamin) White, whose forays into the opponent's half are becoming a hallmark of his performances. It certainly helps to keep opponents guessing when we have someone who is capable of such play in the side.

Anyway, for Arsenal it's up to 5th spot, only two points off of fourth and a mere 6 off the very top. Who could possibly have imagined that at the end of August? There's a long way to go, of course, and it's Liverpool away next...

Talking of Liverpool, it was great to see them lose yesterday, as that meant the end of the last unbeaten run in the division. Happy Invincibles Day for yesterday, everybody. And to continue my alleged 'obsession’ with Tottenham, that's yet another game - Antonio Conte notwithstanding - that they failed to register a single shot on target. Ho hum...

Anyway, another Interlull beckons (congratulations to ESR for getting his first call-up to the senior squad earlier today), and then it's that big test at Anfield. And Liverpool could be in better form, so...

Back in a couple of weeks. COYG!