The succession of toothless performances from the Gunners had prepared me emotionally for this disappointing and (to me) unexpected result. Watford deserved the win. They executed their game plan, we didn't execute ours. Even at the end, Welbeck had the goal at his mercy at close range and inexplicably blasted it off-target instead of passing it in with only a defender to beat. We beat ourselves, offensively and defensively, as much as Watford beat us.
There's no point berating a holding midfielder for his awful finishing when the best two first-half opportunities came his way. Elneny played well today. In fact, most Arsenal players did a good job. As a team, though, they were not as cohesive and effective as their less-talented opponents. Why?
We could talk about the mental toughness of the players, but I won't. I'll question Wenger here, on tactics and on team selection. I don't say he did anything obviously wrong, but I think that if Monreal and Bellerin were fit enough to be on the bench, they should have started. Chambers may one day be a fine player for us, but on the day he was probably our weakest link. Particularly in the second half, he was found wanting repeatedly, and you need some covering pace if you're going to play Mertesacker at right CB. Gibbs was, I think, at fault for the first goal, at least as much as Gabriel or Mertesacker (who didn't even jump for the throw-in). He seemed frozen, when it was obvious that he needed to close Ighalo down and help Gabriel. You absolutely would not have seen Watford leave Giroud one on one with anyone that close to goal. Monreal does not make that mistake.
Tactically, Watford needed to be pressed more energetically and we had to go at them at a faster pace. This is a longstanding complaint we all have with Arsenal. Until their first goal, and even after it, we built too slowly. (Someone is going to have to sit Alexis down and talk to him about letting the ball go earlier. He's capable of some excellent passes. His dribbling is killing our offense these days.)
I don't want to hear any talk about this freeing us to concentrate on the league. We booted the league away against United and Swansea. The Cup was it this year, and now we've booted that away too. Besides, why would we beat Watford (coming up soon) in the league when we can't beat them in the cup? I'm at the point where I'm happy to see Leicester take it, if they can.
Wenger obviously will be concentrating on seeing out the season, but for the first time I'm thinking he may acquiesce in his ouster. Players like Ozil and Alexis are not going to want to spend their prime years struggling to get into the Champions' League and being beaten in the round of 16 every year by their former squads. Clearly, Stan Kroenke is running the club as a business, not a hobby, and is determined to take more money out than he puts in. Fair enough; he's the owner. But 2016 Wenger is not going to take a team whose spending is fourth in the league to first. I wanted him to leave on his own terms, but I think that ship has sailed.
Szczesny won today, anyway.
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