Watford 2-2 Arsenal player ratings: Unai Emery is to blame

Arsenal were not themselves this afternoon…

Arsenal faced a visit to Vicarage Road in the Premier League this afternoon. They headed into the match full of confidence and refreshed following the international break. However, an out-of-form Watford side were not there to be taken lightly.

The Gunners got off to a shaky start as they invited pressure. Bernd Leno was called into action early on. However, against the run of play, Sead Kolasinac snatched the ball and ran an impressive distance unchallenged, before slotting the ball invitingly for Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang.

This gave the Gunners plenty of confidence and they capitalised by scoring another. Ainsley Maitland-Niles played a simple pass into Aubameyang who yet again found the back of the net.

Things looked good up until the second half for Arsenal. Then, they made two costly errors. The first came when Sokratis laid it on a plate for Gerard Deulofeu, who then passed to Tom Cleverley for the goal. Then, David Luiz gave away a silly penalty which was scored by Roberto Pereyra.

Here’s how the Arsenal players performed on a miserable afternoon…

Bernd Leno – 5/10

Unfortunately, Leno was the liveliest goalkeeper of the two. He was called into action early on following a flurry of Watford attacks. He managed to see them all out in the first half but failed to do so in the second half. It’s also worth noting that he saved Arsenal a point towards the end of the game when he prevented a counter-attack.

In fairness, there was not much that he could do about the two goals. They both stemmed from individual, costly errors from either centre back. He rarely took a proper goal kick but this was him simply following Emery’s persistence to play out from the back.