Watford 2-2 Arsenal: Gunners display had me screaming at the TV – Martin Keown
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From Martin Keown
Former Arsenal MOTD2 pundit and defender
While I watched the second half of Arsenal’s draw with Watford on Sunday I was screaming at the TV screen
Since Opta’s records began in 2003 with the Hornets handling 31 shots at goal within 90 minutes, and 23 of those coming after the break it was the worst display by the Gunners.
Seeing them at the production office, it felt like that.
From having their opponents by the throat when they were 2-0 up, Arsenal strangely handed Watford a method back in the match in the most naive way when they conceded after trying to play from their own area from a goal-kick.
But what made things worse was when things went wrong for 20, that Unai Emery’s group could not respond. They disintegrated.
This 1 mistake was sufficient to derail them entirely. At one minute their confidence evaporated. Following that, a determination could not be made by them, and they couldn’t make a pass.
Their game-plan just vanished. They were fortunate to concede one target – from a penalty after a second ridiculous foul by David Luiz – and were left hanging on for a point from the Premier League’s bottom side.
It might have been a whole lot worse.
As a group, Arsenal’s collective mind deserted them. As people I was looking at them in horror, thinking how are they conceding so much distance, and wondering just who picked up who.
There seemed to be a panic that gripped their players, something their seasoned Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka admitted afterwards.
We can see it too, and it is really worrying for Emery. I think that the second half was probably the toughest 45 minutes he’s had since the Arsenal job was taken by him on the summer of 2018.
Emery now knows he has to reestablish confidence and put together a plan.
He’s made to work through what Arsenal do wrong, and work out whether they’re good enough to play the way he wants them to play – because it’s similar to watching schoolboys sometimes when they attempt to bring out the ball from the back.
Arsenal had had a warning and Matteo Guendouzi was caught in possessionof
They didn’t learn from their mistake. Instead they repeated it, and handed Watford a route back.
Yes , there was a feeling that Gerard Deulofeu was in the box once he intercepted Sokratis Papastathopoulos’s clearance to set up Tom Cleverley to make it 2-1, but it was a decision that is completely pointless to perform like that in the first location.
I was a player once the legislation have changed – from choosing up back-passes from 1992, such as when goalkeepers were ceased.
There wasn’t any alternative you needed to alter how that you played, and the way the entire team played.
But in this circumstance, teams have a choice. You don’t have to play passes in your area from goal-kicks because you can.
I believe we’re with it in a little bit of an experimental stage, with some teams as it doesn’t suit them doing it and others doing it at the wrong times.
The latter was the case for Arsenal on Sunday, when they were architects of their own downfall.
I respect that they’re trying to play from defence but, when they wanted to do there, there was yet another pass for Sokratis – broad to right-back Ainsley Maitland-Niles, which was a much safer way of doing it.
Then it’s funny, if you really do exactly what Arsenal did and make it wrong and you look stupid.
Because if you mess up, you’re giving your opponent the ball on the edge of your area, it is crazy football, actually – and it ends with you conceding a tap-in.
By practicing passing away from the back, if Arsenal ready for this game, they didn’t seem to arrive at the next point, which would have been’if we lose it, what happens ‘
There were no responses from the Gunners when Watford pulled a goal back. They had no means of viewing the match out.
They tore their strategy, which was to maneuver the ball up, and seemed to change their thinking to’let go ‘.
But when you do so, you have to do it and proceed the pitch up.
You may attempt to target one side, which means you have the numbers squeeze the resistance in that area, hold up the ball there and to get the knockdowns.
But, Arsenal failed to adapt their form to do this in any organised fashion.
Rather they played aimless balls to isolated strikers, and everyone stayed rooted to the place in positions that were deep , nevertheless on the edge of their box.
Each component of the team had been strung out and entirely pumped, which meant they couldn’t maintain possession – it fell after the break of 37% from 57 percent from the first half.
Things got so bad for Arsenal, it was almost with Watford attacks coming . It was relentless.
As a participant you need to take control when that’s happening to your group. You create yourself more streamlined as a unit, and stay in touch with one another.
Arsenal’s sport direction was non-existent. You had binoculars to watch their players, In the event you were in their defence, they were far away.
That is all pretty basic stuff, and lots of the time, if you’re keeping the distance between, say, midfield and defence it moves hidden.
You concede opportunities in the speed Arsenal were at the second half, when it doesn’t.
Alarm bells should be ringing for Emery, and he wants to get on the practice floor and sort out things.
Watford could have won – and they deserved to.
Arsenal have already suffered 20 away Premier League beats in just two seasons, and this is simply not good enough to get a team that wants to create the top four.
The worrying thing is his side still have enormous issues and they don’t seem to be improving, although emery has just been for a few of those campaigns. In fact they seem to be getting worse.
Martin Keown was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.
Even though Steve Smith won over English audiences David Warner suffered a torturous Ashes.
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