One minute sunny, the next spattered with rain, it was a deceptive summer’s day at Vicarage Road. Fans were dressed for the beach but watched much of the second half under floodlights. Only at full-time did the sun deign to show its face again.
As with the weather, so with Arsenal. An accomplished performance was pockmarked with moments of bad judgment. An imposing 3-0 half-time lead could have been nullified were it not for Petr Cech. And yet, for all that Watford corralled possession in the second half, you could not say that the visitors were ever truly threatened.
It was the sort of deceptive day that leads to familiar thoughts about the Gunners: could this be their season? Have they finally found the grit to compete in tough physical matches (of which this was one)? Might Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez be ready to grab the league by the scruff of the neck? Oh, and how long before one or the other, or Santi Cazorla, or Laurent Koscielny, gets injured again?
Such questions will be answered in the fullness of time and Gunners fans could be forgiven for thinking they know the answers already. But on Saturday Arsenal played well enough to encourage those same supporters to dream, with Özil and Sánchez in particular superlative. “I think what we have seen from him today is what we want from him,” Arsène Wenger said after the match about Özil, who scored the game’s third goal and looks suspiciously like he has added some muscle to his skinny frame. Sánchez delivered similarly, turning his lack of height against a Watford back three to his advantage, constantly spinning and sprinting past defenders who didn’t know whether to step in or drop off.
The confidence that the German and Chilean had in each other was apparent from the off. As early as the fifth minute Özil asked Sánchez to thread a ball through three players and slide him in on goal.
No problem. In the 36th minute Sánchez returned the request, burrowing his way through a crowd before playing a one-two which required Özil to return the ball square and over an opponent’s leg with his back to goal.
Sure thing, buddy. Both opportunities came to nothing in the final moment, but it was a sign of what was to come. Sánchez provided the sumptuous cross for Özil’s emphatic header, and the German was involved in the move that led to the Chilean’s loopy tap-in.
It wasn’t just confidence that was noticeable, but clarity. Özil and Sánchez knew what they wanted to do on the pitch and how and when to do it. The same terms applied to Petr Cech, Koscielny and Cazorla. Wenger has only been able to select this experienced spine once since November, and that was the final day of last season against Aston Villa (a 4-0 win that secured second place in the league). Last season all five were injured at some point, with Özil sustaining four distinct injuries and Koscielny six.
That Arsenal look a different team with experience in the side is not a new observation, but it was proven once again on Saturday. The ability to execute a match plan and individual moments in the game was accompanied by good decisions made under high pressure. But it did not apply across the whole team. Others like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere, each of whom have yet to carve out a distinct position for themselves at Arsenal, mixed good moments of play with bad decisions elsewhere.
Watford can take solace from their second-half showing even though at the back of their minds, they will know the contest had by then been decided. They will also know that in the battle for Premier League survival ahead, one of their own greatest assets will be that same experience. Of the 21 players Walter Mazzarri has used in just three league games so far this season, only one is under the age of 23. Eight, meanwhile, are over 30.
Even when the game was running away from them, Watford looked well drilled. They switched comfortably from a back three to a back four during the game and from a front two to a front three. “There’s a very good quality in the dressing room,” said Younès Kaboul, who joined from Sunderland this month, after the match. “We’re a physical side with great experience but I think the strength is the mentality of the squad. All the boys are [of a] very good mentality, we put a shift on the pitch. Today the first half was bad for us but second half we had the reaction and maybe had we scored one more, anything could have happened.”
Watford face West Ham and Manchester United after the international break before a run of fixtures that includes all three promoted sides. This will give a better sense of where their expectations lie this season. As for Arsenal, we all know the drill by now.
