Arsene Wenger bemoaned a “scandalous decision” to award Watford a penalty as Arsenal squandered a lead to lose 2-1 in injury time at Vicarage Road.
The Gunners led through Per Mertesacker’s header but the Hornets equalised when Troy Deeney converted from the spot after Hector Bellerin was adjudged to have fouled Richarlison.
Substitute Deeney’s strike with 19 minutes left set the scene for a stirring Watford finish, with Tom Cleverley converting in the closing seconds to send Watford fourth.
“I would say it was not a penalty,” said Arsenal manager Wenger. “It came at a moment in the game where it was absolutely important for Watford. No penalty, no goal.”
Deeney gave a scathing assessment of Wenger’s comments and the Gunners in general, telling BT Sport: “I’ve heard Wenger’s already saying the penalty is the reason they lost. Well, I’m not going to be one to tell Mr Wenger about himself, but there’s a reason they lost and it wasn’t because of one penalty.
“It’s having a bit of cojones. Whenever I play against Arsenal, I’ll go up and think ‘let me whack the first one and see who wants it’.
“I came on today and jumped up with Mertesacker – I didn’t even have to jump, actually. I nodded it down, the crowd got up – ‘yeah we’ve got somebody who can win it’ – and they all just backed off.
“For me as a player, I just think ‘happy days’. That’s my strength – if you’re going to let me do my strength against you, you’re going to have a tough afternoon.”
Hornets boss Marco Silva was unhappy with any inference that attacker Richarlison had exaggerated to win the spot-kick that helped turn the game in his side’s favour.
“I have seen the penalty and I respect the decision of the referee,” he said. “I didn’t see a dive or a simulation.
He goes down easily but it’s not simulation because there’s contact. If Arsene Wenger was in the other dugout he’d want the penalty there.
“Richarlison has suffered the most fouls in the Premier League this season, and people are starting to say he dives.
“He is not. He is fair, He wins fouls like the best players in the world win fouls.”
Silva’s side have now scored in the 90th minute or beyond in three consecutive games, as a second-half revival sealed their first home win of an impressive start to the campaign.
Without the rested Alexis Sanchez the Gunners lacked the cutting edge to capitalise on a string of chances, with substitute Mesut Ozil – also benched after his World Cup qualifying exertions for Germany in the week – guilty of one glaring miss.
All of Watford’s wins prior to Saturday had come away from home
When Silva arrived at Vicarage Road his record in home games was a key strength.
The Portuguese had won many admirers with the way he almost saved Hull City from relegation last season.
But seven games into his Premier League tenure at Watford, it was on the road where his resilient side were making their mark.
All of their wins had come away from Hertfordshire until Saturday, but the optimistic Portuguese may have sensed his luck could change against an Arsenal side without talisman Sanchez and struggling away from Emirates Stadium.
When your side keeps playing for you until the last, you can even afford to be bullish about a zonal marking system that at one point seemed to cause more harm than good. Arsenal threatened from every set-piece as 5ft 9in Cleverley appeared to be marking 6ft 6in Mertesacker.
It let the visitors open the scoring and remained a problem, but afterwards Silva stood by his methods.
“It’s not wrong,” he said. “It’s my decision and we will continue this way. We need to do more but we are strong zonally.”
After taking Watford into the Champions League places on a fraction of the budgets elsewhere in the top four, few can argue.
Granted they had to ask injury-troubled elder statesman Mertesacker to replace his sidelined compatriot Shkodran Mustafi, but that was not solely to blame.
For 45 minutes at least the 33-year-old German was commanding on his first top-flight start since April 2016.
But worryingly for Arsenal in this contest, they faced only three shots on target and conceded twice.
The panic was palpable in their re-jigged back-line as Watford cranked up that trademark late pressure.
Wenger had readied Jack Wilshire from the bench but brought on another defender, Rob Holding, to cling onto a point. It wasn’t enough.
Not for the first time his defence switched off under pressure, leaving Cleverley unmarked to smash in the late heart-breaker.
Injuries can’t be helped. Organisation and remaining calm under pressure are another thing.
