Tag Archives: Arsenal

13th March 2016-FA Cup Sixth Round, Arsenal 1 Watford 2

Programme images courtesy of Matt Hall

http://watford.fcdb.info/index.php?page=matches

Watford stunned FA Cup holders Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium to book their place in the semi-finals at Wembley.

Odion Ighalo and Adlene Guedioura goals dump holders out of FA Cup

It’s 4pm. We’ve opted against the scrum for the tube in favour of a leisurely walk in the sunshine back to Kings Cross. There’s a workman painting a doorway on Caledonian Road, the Kinks’ “Sunny Afternoon” rumbles out of his radio. It’s a perfect soundtrack for what is a necessary but overlooked feature of stunning days like this one… the dazed post-match taking-it-all-in thing.

The second goal was a thing of beauty. Deeney did tremendously well to hold the ball up in the box then he passed it out to Guedioura and WELLY!!! The shot nearly burst the net and would have knocked out someone in the upper tier if it had. If the first goal celebration had been joyous, this one was truly mental and, suddenly, the Watford fans started thinking that we could actually win this, and those of us who had been calling for Adlene’s replacement were left with egg on our faces.

Watford’s joy was unfettered at the end of it all and rightly so. What a coup to accompany a promising Premier League season as a newly promoted side! Their players danced in front of the supporters after the final whistle. Even some of the home fans felt able to applaud them off, appreciative of their efforts on the day.

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https://oldwatford.com/2019/03/16/16th-march-2019-fa-cup-sixth-round-watford-2-crystal-palace-1/

17th October 2015- Premier League, Watford 0 Arsenal 3

Referee: Mike Jones
Attendance: 20,721

Arsenal produced a superb second-half display to defeat Watford and move into second place in the Premier League.

Arsenal caught Watford on the counter several times in the second half, and the Hornets fell behind just after the hour mark. Capoue went down on the edge of the Gunners box with Watford committed forward, but the referee was unmoved and Arsenal broke through Cazorla and Ozil.

Watford made Arsenal work for their win, but the Gunners had too much for the Hornets in the second half, and they reclaim second spot in the Premier League table.

Watford approached their four previous home games with such caution that a combined total of two goals were scored in what became a 360-minute improvised symphony of sterility. They played a different tune here and Vicarage Road duly witnessed more attacking action in the opening half-hour than in the previous two months combined. Aaron Ramsey, who clipped the bar after running on to Sánchez’s sublime chipped pass, came closest to scoring but the home side had their chances, with the previously deadeye Odion Ighalo, scorer of their last five Premier League goals, missing the most glaring after half an hour when he was played in by Ikechi Anya. But, having been so conservative against some less daunting opponents, this seemed like a dangerous occasion to start taking risks.

“Oh look, it’s Arsenal!” you think, in the same way you might if you passed, say, Dermot O’Leary in the street. Except I get the impression that Dermot O’Leary is a reasonably good egg who might not mind if you smiled and said hello*, whereas Arsenal have long since transcended those kind of everyday niceties and would undoubtedly consider any acknowledgement of your existence beneath them. They’re very much, you know, in the cloud. They’re a football club in the same way that U2 at Wembley is a rock’n’roll gig…that is, very much so or not at all, depending on your point of view. (Go on, have a guess.) Except that they aren’t U2, obviously. They’re some b-list stadium atrocity, overwrought and overblown. They’re Muse.

26th December 2006- Premier League, Watford 1 Arsenal 2

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4737

Arsenal moved third in the Premiership thanks to a late Robin van Persie winner at a heartbroken Watford

BBC-SPORT-_-Football-_-Premiership-_-Watford-1-2-Arsenal Download

Should you have room after all those mince pies, the one word match report is: Gusto.

And amid it all, one of the most resourceful and committed team performances that Vicarage Road has seen in recent years, reducing Arsenal’s vastly over-hyped ice-skating-on-grass football to scraps and bits and hilarity. Still lost, I know, but the fight was truly something to behold. When the team needed and deserved our fullest support, a few hundred were crassly bellowing about a country whose history apparently ended in 1945 and distant deeds that they have absolutely no claim over, while the rest of us were shaking our heads in silent disbelief and wishing that the ground would open up. Never has an atmosphere been deflated so quickly without a goal being scored.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2006-12-26

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/26-december-2006/

14th October 2006- Premier League, Arsenal 3 Watford 0

Arsenal sealed a fourth straight Premiership win but were grateful for some woeful Watford finishing.

Today’s one-word match report is: comfy

A load of Lemons at Arsenal…

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=31642&id=4724

5th January 2002- FA Cup Third Round, Watford 2 Arsenal 4

Director of Marketing Ed Coan reveals that a ‘Wembley Revisited’ brochure was designed in the run up to the Tottenham semi final in 1987.
The East Stand redevelopment plan is shown in detail in the middle pages of the programme. None of it ever happened due to the collapse of ITV Digital.

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23rd April 2000- Premier League, Watford 2 Arsenal 3

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4397

Brief highlights from the Premier League website

Really, this made no sense whatsoever. A spewed, skewed mess of a football match, mercilessly thrilling throughout. Goals, misses, controversy, aggression, mistakes, mayhem. The thunderstorm that clattered around during the second half, blackening the skies except for occasional sharp flashes of lightning, could hardly have been more appropriate – this was furious, elemental stuff.

Oh what the hell, the season’s run-in is upon us – this is the batch of games we looked at from afar and thought, oh God, please don’t let us need the points from these games to stay up, please let us be sorted by then. And you know something? We don’t. And we are. So let’s party like last year was 1999, and next year we’ll be back in this division, this league, this wretched pandemic loadsamoney pissing contest…and we can send GT out on a high.

Taken from the programme 29th April 2000- Premier League, Watford 2 Manchester United

Taken from the programme 29th April 2000- Premier League, Watford 2 Manchester United

https://oldwatford.com/2006/12/26/26th-december-2006-premier-league-watford-1-arsenal-2/