Absolutely get the fuck in fellas. Arsenal did their best to make the match by letting Watford back in but a solid performance away from home saw us see out Watford 3-2. Goals from Ødegaard, Saka, and Martinelli saw us through in a somewhat comfortable manner. This result is a massive 3 points considering our fixture list coming up. Arsenal feel like a double-edged sword for me at the moment with every win comes more pressure, and with more pressure comes increase sadness if they mess this up. Looking at the table, we are the clear favorites for that 4th position at this point. It’s hard not to get excited to be in this position we are in currently but as Arsenal fans, we know better than to get our hopes up with this team. Future Kent can deal with whatever Arsenal does to me later, right now, let’s just be happy that we aren’t United fans.
PRE-MATCH/FIRST HALF: Mikel went out and out with the same team that started against Wolves with ESR and Tomiyasu being the notable players not in the squad today. Watford had more changes with Joao Pedro and Cucho Hernandez coming in for Josh King and Ismaila Sarr. The match started with Watford heaving it up and you could clearly tell that Ben White and Gabriel were switched off. Watford then were able to play Emmanuel Dennis through for a goal 18 fucking seconds in however Tierney “cleverly” made sure he was in an offside position. Thank fucking goodness, almost had me unwell not in a minute into the game. Then a couple minutes later Cédric, Saka, and Ødegaard sweetly combined to put us ahead with one of the nicest flicks you’ll see coming off the Norwegian’s heel.
Before I could even get a chance to enjoy the goal, Cucho Hernandez goes to the other head and scores a contender for goal of the season with a sumptuous overhead kick. Fuck me, what a goal from Cucho. Nothing to say on my end, yeah Cédric could be tighter but the goal is so well taken. Can’t do anything but applaud such an effort.
The game then settled down a bit before Tom Cleverly came back into my life. I absolutely see no reason why Tom Cleverly is still playing Premier League football but thank goodness he somehow is, cause in the 30th minute, Saka dispossesses him easily before combining with Lacazette to put us ahead 2-1. Saka was the MOTM for me. His work rate on/off the ball and combined with this goal contributions attributed to a stellar performance by the starboy.
The goal also shows Gabriel trying to break the lines a bit with a pass to Saka but doesn’t get to him. Like I mentioned in the Thomas Partey blog, I do not mind losing the ball in those areas with those passes cause those are passes we need to be making. Just work your ass off to get the ball back if we lose it, like Saka did and gets rewarded with a goal.
SECOND HALF: The second half started where it ended more or less with Arteta acting as a ballboy to get an attack going with Saka throwing it into a charging Cédric who found Ødegaard who played into a Lacazette who laid it off for Martinelli to smash it into the top corner.
The game was comfortable from then on for a bit with Watford pushing to get back in but Arsenal able to see off the pressure. Thomas Partey, I thought was quietly outstanding. His quality is one where I think is clear when he is at his best when looking at all the players on the pitch. But in typical Arsenal fashion, Sissoko gets passed Ben White and gets the ball passed Ramsdale to make it 3-2 and also give me a heart attack. Arsenal were able to see it through til the end but sloppy defending made it harder than it needed to at the end.
PLAYER RATINGS:
MOTM: Saka
RAMSDALE: 6/10 – Made the saves when he needed to. The Dennis offside goal raised concerns how he scored with that angle but we won the game nonetheless.
Cédric: 6.5/10 – He has been solid in Tomiyasu’s absence. Contributed to our 3rd goal.
Ben White: 6/10 – solid for most of the match but should have done way better on their second goal.
Gabriel: 6/10 – started shaky but played better throughout.
Thomas Partey: 7.5/10 – Dominant and composed
Xhaka: 6/10 – Fine, we need a replacement so bad to bolster our midfield to play that 8 position.
Saka: 9/10 – Stellar. My starboy
Ødegaard: 7/10 – His influence on the team is growing every week.
Martinelli: 7.5/10 – Very quiet up until his goal but took his chance well to score the game winner for us.
Lacazette: 7/10 – Combined well for two goals, two assists to his name, My number 9.
Subs:
Pépe, Nketiah, Holding: 7/10 – all contributed to us not losing this game.
Kent (18 seconds in ): 0/10 – freaking the fuck out.
Kent (rest of first half): 7/10 – Much better
Kent (most of second half): 7/10 – straight chilling
Kent (2nd half extra time): 0/10 – hitting my pants
CONCLUSION: Please don’t let me the fuck down. COMEEE ONNNN ARSENALLLLLL
Featured Image credits: Arsenal.com
GIF credits: NBC