Saturday, April 2, 2016

Arsenal 4 - 0 Watford

That fool Gomez looked pretty foolish today.  I wish we could have scored two of today's goals in the FA Cup game against these guys, but I'm told that's not the way it works.  Watford looked like a team that knew it had ridden its luck last time and was happy to get out of town without suffering even more indignity today.  It was great to see Alexis score, and for him to get a few minutes off at the end.  I saw the Chile-Argentina game last Tuesday and he was running his socks off in that too.  Iwobi took another step forward, and the Campbell-Walcott connection late on was heartwarming.  We could very easily have been awarded a couple of PKs as well.  Watford had its moments, but there weren't many of them and they came after the competitive portion of the action was over.

Bottom line, it's hard to draw many conclusions from this win.  Watford really looked sloppy and out of sorts.  But some individual performances were very impressive.  I haven't looked at the blogs yet, so these are just my impressions.  Coquelin was imperious in midfield.  He pretty much shut Watford down through the middle.  Of course, Elneny gets credit too.  He really does look like a smart addition.  Bellerin was awesome.  Not only did he perform his defensive duties, he scored and participated in several very dangerous maneuvers down the right.  Monreal had just as good a game, but in his quiet fashion, which is how I like defenders to do things.  Ospina did what was required of him very well, but that wasn't much today.  Everyone else looked good today too, including the subs, but maybe that was their opponents making them look good.  Anyway, a thoroughly enjoyable game, just the way I like them when I have a strong rooting interest.  Early goal, two goal lead at the half, and out of reach before the hour mark.  Perfect.  And no injuries, at least that I could see.

Tottenham and Liverpool drew in what was a real barnburner, one of the most entertaining games I've seen this year.  It was all action, and the ref let 'em play and got the calls right, which wasn't easy.  I was sure Spuds would win this one, but am very happy to see them drop points.  Their schedule is favorable, but that doesn't mean much this year, so if they drop two points more than we do the rest of the way, we'll finish above them.  That's my goal now.  Leicester is not going to collapse; I don't see us catching them.  Man City won big too, so we have to win six of our remaining seven games to be assured of finishing above them (and West Ham and Man United).  We play the Hammers (who also drew today against Palace) and the Citizens at their place, so this isn't assured.  Draws in both those games would probably be enough to assure Champions' League status.  But we have to take care of business against everyone else and hope United doesn't win out.  Good weekend already, and maybe some opponents will drop points tomorrow.

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