Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to key eventsSkip to navigation

Ben Foster conceded a ludicrous goal before Troy Deeney earned himself a ludicrous red card to gift Arsenal a scarcely-deserved win

 Updated 
Mon 15 Apr 2019 17.16 EDTFirst published on Mon 15 Apr 2019 14.00 EDT
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates scoring the winning goal.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates scoring the winning goal. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates scoring the winning goal. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images

Live feed

Key events

Ben Foster talks to Sky:

I’m gutted for the lads. They were brilliant. I thought we were the better team, really pushing for it and Arsenal were happy to hit us on the counter-attack. I’ve said sorry to the lads. I think I should have just Cruyff-ed him to be honest, but it’s not my style.

Daryl played the ball back to me. I wanted to drag it onto my left and then hit it out wide, but before I know it he’s bloody on to me. God, he’s fast. Fair play to him, he’s absolutely rapid. I’ve got to do it a bit quicker, you’ve got to just get rid as soon as you can. It’s not the time to muck about. I’m definitely not a modern goalie. I’m happy to put it in row Z. I just thought I had a bit more time than I did.

On the red card:

Troy’s not happy about it in there. Said it was absolutely nothing, didn’t mean to do anything and that’s all I can say.

More from Aubameyang. The result will be pleasing, for sure, but I don’t think there’s any reason to take confidence from their performance.

These three points give us a lot of confidence, because now we know we can win games away. That’s great, tonight, to win three points and to go home with this victory.

Here’s a bit of Aubameyang’s reaction:

We knew that it would be a tough game, and I think everybody knows what’s the target for us this season, to get in the top four, and we knew that this game is really important to stay in the competition for the top four.

[For the goal] I was confident I could get there. It was a long time I wanted to score a goal like this, and today it came true. It was a good goal. For me, I like it.

That was as encouraging as an idiotically-given-away defeat can be for Watford, and as unimpressive as a desperately-needed-away-win gets for Arsenal. It was a compelling game, but none of the actual, in-game action really had much impact on the result, which was decided by two very poor mistakes from players who should know better.

Final score: Watford 0-1 Arsenal

90+4 mins: There’s time for one more Aubameyang offside sprint before the referee blows his whistle, and Arsenal have a rare away win!

90+3 mins: Most of Watford’s nine outfield players are in the penalty area, as Janmaat prepares for a throw.

90+1 mins: Watford very nearly find a way through, but the ball doesn’t fall to Gray, or Capoue, or Hughes, and when it finally rolls to Success his attempted pass, or perhaps shot, is miserably weak.

88 mins: Arsenal keep the ball for a while, working it down the right and then across to the left. It ends with a good chance for Aubameyang, who bursts onto the ball on the edge of the area, runs into the box and then blasts wide with his left foot!

85 mins: Despite those Watford chances, there has been a significant drop in intensity in the last 10 minutes. Watford are still pushing, but their belief, and their energy, is running out.

83 mins: And another! Janmaat crosses from the right and Hughes beats Mkhitaryan to the header, but the ball loops over the bar.

80 mins: Chance for Watford! Success nods the ball on and Gray bursts past Maitland-Niles, goes past Leno and tries to turn it into the net, but Maitland-Niles gets back to put himself in the way!

Andre Gray’s shot is well blocked by Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Photograph: Marc Atkins/Getty Images
Share
Updated at 

78 mins: Guendouzi makes a nice run behind the defence on the right and is found with a chipped pass, but his low centre is to nobody in particular, and in the end Xhaka’s shot is saved. “Robert Pires would look like a hard man in this Arsenal midfield,” says Duncan Edwards. “Every time they face a robust challenge its as if someone is disrupting their aerobics class.”

75 mins: Great chance for Arsenal! It’s another fizzing centre from Mkhitaryan, and Aubameyang meets it at the near post, but he pokes the ball over the bar!

Aubameyang misses from close range. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA
Share
Updated at 

74 mins: The quality of Watford’s crossing has been very poor. Twice Success, who doesn’t even have the excuse of tiredness, has given the ball away with rubbish passes infield, and now Gray crosses to nobody.

68 mins: Mkhitaryan fizzes the ball across goal towards Ozil, but the German doesn’t seem particularly keen on sprinting so doesn’t reach the cross. Arsenal bring on Maitland-Niles, and take off Ramsey.

67 mins: Watford have come into the game again after a difficult start to the half, but they are starting to take serious risks in defence as they seek an equaliser. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t another goal in this game.

64 mins: Janmaat finds Gray in the area, but the striker can’t bring the ball under control and it runs off the pitch! What a great chance that nearly was and probably should have been.

62 mins: Watford hit the bar! Doucoure lays the ball off to Masina, who from at least 30 yards smashes a shot that Leno gets nowhere near, and crashes against the angle of post and bar!

Bernd Leno is beaten by Adam Masina’s shot but the ball crashes against the bar! Photograph: David Klein/Reuters
Share
Updated at 

61 mins: Another Mkhitaryan shot, this from just outside the area. It’s absolutely wild, high and wide.

60 mins: Kabasele leaves the field for a couple of minutes to change his boots, and for a while Ozil and Aubameyang are both waiting for any kind of through-ball, with only Cathcart anywhere near either of them. Arsenal can’t quite find a way through Watford’s nine men.

58 mins: Another chance for the away team. Mkhitaryan plays a one-two with Ozil and then spears a shot well wide from just inside the area.

57 mins: What a chance for Arsenal! They break, and have four forwards to Watford’s three defenders. Iwobi crosses to Mkhitaryan, who looked to be about to tap in a volley from six yards, but Foster comes out quickly and gets a leg in the way!

Ben Foster’s leg denies Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Photograph: Matthew Childs/Action Images via Reuters
Share
Updated at 

56 mins: Janmaat carries the ball across the edge of Arsenal’s area, and then shoots into Gray’s legs.

55 mins: Jim Hounslow has done some actual refereeing training. “I’m studying for my referee exam on Wednesday,” he writes. “This looks like a ‘strike or attempts to strike at an opponent (includes head butts)‘ rather than ‘Violent Conduct’ which uses excessive force or brutality. In the case of strikes the referee determines to be careless, reckless or use of excessive force. I would have cautioned him.”

54 mins: Capoue gets booked, for going into a challenge on Mkhitaryan with a high foot. The Arsenal player really did make a big show of very limited contact, though.

53 mins: Iwobi curls the ball in from the left-hand corner of the area, but Aubameyang just fails to get a boot to it at the near post, and then it curls only just past the far post.

51 mins: Iwobi tricks his way past Doucoure on the byline, but in doing so tricks his way off the pitch.

“There’s no way that was a straight red but that needed to happen to Deeney so as to reset the karmic balance,” says Jerome Bishop.

Some clarification from Rick McGahey: “I think you are joking about a ‘reasonably gentle forearm smash’ (although you can never tell with English football fans and their tolerance for physical play), but just to be pedantic (it is The Guardian after all), here’s what Fifa means by ‘excessive force’: ‘Using excessive force means that the player has far exceeded the necessary use of force and is in danger of injuring his opponent.’ Since hitting Torriera in the head wasn’t necessary at all (never could be), red card is just fine by Fifa standards.” Yeah, I get that. But I think Fifa have worked some unnecessary grey area into their wording here. It looked to me like a red card, because Deeney jabbed his forearm into Torreira’s head, but he was not in danger of injuring his opponent, so perhaps I’m wrong.

Half time: Watford 0-1 Arsenal

45+2 mins: Arsenal don’t deserve anything from that half. They have been terrible, and for large parts outplayed by 10 men. However, they have been gifted a lead and they’ve still got it.

45+1 mins: There will be one minute of stoppage time. It starts with Aubameyang getting the ball in the area, twisting this way and that and then shooting into Hughes.

44 mins: “So if I understand correctly, Deeney (a) decided ahead of time to whack an Arsenal player, (b) announced his intention to the referees, and then (c) actually went out and did it,” summarises Peter McMurry. “And now he’s complaining about a red card? There’s got to be some Spanish aphorism about brains v cojones that’s appropriate here.”

41 mins: Watford attack nicely, and when Femenia crosses from the right Mustafi heads the ball just before Kabasele can volley it. On the plus side, he denies Watford a goalscoring chance. On the down side, he gets volleyed in the head.

40 mins: As Gary Naylor points out, you actually should be allowed to do a reasonably gentle forearm smash. Fifa’s laws state: “A player is guilty of violent conduct if he uses excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball.” So a bit of force is fine.

37 mins: Doucoure flicks the ball over an opponent’s head and passes to Gray, who I’m pretty certain is not offside, but the lino has his flag up. Gray should have been played in on goal, in which case the official’s mistake would have been significant, but instead the pass was played behind him.

35 mins: Arsenal have been dreadful so far. Obviously the game has kind of been handed to them, but their own contribution has been extremely weak. “Let’s have more fun!” suggests Hubert O’Hearn. “In what way are Emery’s Arsenal better than later Wenger? Monsters at home/helpless away; flat track bullies/contenders meat and drink; artful yet indecisive; and no one knows what to do with Mesut Ozil. Discuss.”

31 mins: Hughes runs from his own half to the edge of the D, and then falls over. I didn’t see a foul, but the referee did.

30 mins: “Couldn’t be more neutral on this match if I was a Swiss girl named Heidi, but honestly, never a red card,” argues Hubert O’Hearn. “To quote the late Jimmy Cannon on the ‘invisible knockout’ in Clay v. Liston II: ‘I was at ringside, I saw the punch, and it wouldn’t have crushed a grape.’”

I think that if you smash someone in the face just a little bit, it’s still a face-smash.

26 mins: Arsenal counter-attack and briefly have a three-on-one, but Iwobi dallies and then shoots into Cathcart, and when the ball bounces back to him he lashes in a shot, which Foster pushes over the bar!

Share
Updated at 

Most viewed

Most viewed