Arsenal just edged through their Premier League clash against Watford with a 1-0 victory, despite playing most of the game with a man advantage.
Troy Deeney was sent off early on for an elbow in Lucas Torreira’s face, not long after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had given Arsenal the lead by punishing a Ben Foster mistake. However, rather than sparking a spree of goalscoring, that ended up being the only time either side found the net.
Unai Emery won’t care much, as his side got the three away points they desperately needed, moving back up into the top four with a game in hand on Chelsea and a two-point lead on Manchester United.
Let’s have a look at our player ratings for the clash.
3Forwards
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 5
Mkhitaryan wasn’t as involved as he’d have liked to be in the first half, but it took a great stop to keep him out early on in the second. Not long afterwards he snatched at a good chance created by substitute Mesut Özil, and then missed the target even more embarrassingly five minutes later.
On the positive side, he did work hard, tracking back well to cover for mistakes from his teammates. Still, his half-hearted attempt to win an aerial duel in his own box against Will Hughes could have been punished on another day.
Alex Iwobi 8
Iwobi was Arsenal’s main creative outlet in the first half, creating as many chances (four) as the rest of the team combined. He started the second similarly, chipping a nice ball to Mkhitaryan a few yards out from goal, and bringing his total chances created to seven by the end of the 90 minutes.
Not everything he tried came off, but he consistently provided a threat and even added a team-high three tackles to his performance.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 7.5
Aubameyang scored early on after closing down Ben Foster well and blocking his clearance into the goal. He had another shot just about blocked as he started the game brightly, but didn’t have as many opportunities after that as he should have with the man advantage.
He’ll be a bit disappointed not to have found the target after a Mkhitaryan cross, but at the end of the day he still put away the winning goal.