Watford will be without one of their most influential and dangerous players in Gerard Deulofeu when the two sides face each other after the Spaniard was ruled out for the rest of the season.

Watford's English head coach Nigel Pearson (R) puts his arm around Watford's Spanish midfielder Gerard Deulofeu (L) at the end of the English Premier League football match between Manchester United and Watford at Old Trafford in Manchester, north west England, on February 23, 2020.
Watford’s English head coach Nigel Pearson (R) puts his arm around Watford’s Spanish midfielder Gerard Deulofeu (L) at the end of the English Premier League football match between Manchester United and Watford at Old Trafford in Manchester, north west England, on February 23, 2020. (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Arsenal’s Champions League fantasy all hinges on how high they can now climb the league table, so that means every advantage should be grabbed.

This is one, as much as you don’t like to see a player suffer such a serious injury.

Deulofeu ruptured his ACL and tore his meniscus in their win over Liverpool that ended Jurgen Klopp’s side’s dreams of going through the season unbeaten. We like to believe it was sacrificed for a higher cause, namely maintaining Arsenal’s record, and we applaud Gerrard’s selfessness.

Arsenal face Watford at home in the last game of the season and this season’s top four/five chase could go to the wire, as could the race to avoid the drop which Watford are very much a part of.

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Deulofeu has one goal and two assists in six games against Arsenal and four goals and five assists in the Premier League this season. That means he has scored or created one-third of all Watford’s league goals this season

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