Arteta on Watford win: 'We weren't at the races'

Mikel Arteta admitted his Arsenal side weren't at the races despite beating Watford 3-2 in their final Premier League game of the season.



Arteta on Watford win: 'We weren't at the races'

Mikel Arteta was far from pleased with his side's performance against Watford. CREDIT: OFFSIDE


A Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang brace and Kieran Tierney's first Gunners goal had the hosts 3-0 ahead, but a Troy Deeney penalty and Danny Welbeck's close-range finish brought the Hornets back into the game.

Arsenal held on though to relegate Watford, but Arteta acknowledged it was far from a positive performance.

"It was a crazy game, right from the start," he said.

"The moment that we went one or two-nil up you could sense that their front players were a bit cheating and obviously even if they couldn't finish the actions every time the counter was open, we allowed them too many balls in the box.

"This is where they are really dangerous. They had some really good quality moments with the ball in the final third, but we weren't at the races without the ball, like we have been in the last few games."

Arsenal's head coach knows his side will have to improve if they want to beat Chelsea in next weekend's FA Cup final, adding: "It will be a completely different game.

"First of all from the mental side, it will be equal. How much they want it compared to how much we want it, I don't think that was the case today because of the necessity they have, the way they had to approach the game was different to us and you can see that.

"Hopefully Saturday will be very different."

______________________________________

The current season's final issue of The Gooner (number 283) has been sent out to subscribers. We cannot sell this issue at matches, with fans banned from attending until next season, so for those who would normally buy it at the stadium, you can have it posted to you if you buy from our online store – UK addresses click this link, and overseas addresses click here. Or if you have a PayPal account you can simply send £6 (UK) or £7.50 (abroad) through our paypal.me link - https://www.paypal.me/goonerfanzine - but please remember to put you name and address in the ‘add note’ field


NEW! Subscribe to our weekly Gooner Fanzine newsletter for all the latest news, views, and videos from the intelligent voice of Arsenal supporters since 1987.

Please note that we will not share your email address with any 3rd parties.


Article Rating

Leave a comment

Sign-in with your Online Gooner forum login to add your comment. If you do not have a login register here.