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This article is part of Football FanCast's Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC's microscope.
Watford came from behind to snatch a point from Arsenal's hands on Sunday afternoon as defensive errors left the Gunners rueing yet again from the same old mistakes.
Snapshot
A first-half brace from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had Arsenal looking the likely victors at the break, even if the goals had come slightly against the run of play.
Unai Emery’s persistence to play the ball out from the back cost them the first goal as Sokratis fumbled a pass straight into the path of Tom Cleverley, who calmly fired past Bernd Leno.
Then with less than ten minutes to go, David Luiz felled Roberto Pereyra just inside the area after the attacking midfielder had left the Brazilian well beaten.
He duly stepped up to take the penalty and slotted home with aplomb.
Watford recorded 31 shots in the match, ten of which were on target and 13 arrived in the final half an hour or so – when the Gunners boss made a key change.
Off the Bench
In the 67th minute of the match, Emery decided to withdraw Matteo Guendouzi for Lucas Torreira to try and shore things up defensively.
At that stage in the match, the visitors were slightly on top with 52.9% possession.
But this change effectively saw Arsenal invite the pressure on, forcing their defence into mistakes – in the final 23 minutes, Watford recorded 69.6% possession and managed 13 more shots.
The added impetus and persistence in closing down from Watford led to Sokratis’ error which handed them one goal back, and it only got worse from there as Luiz was caught lazily sticking a leg out to concede the penalty.
Guendouzi is quite often the man to come deep and start the next phase of the game, but he also likes to get up the pitch, something Torreira doesn’t do so much and, because no Arsenal midfielder was forcing the hosts back, Watford's midfielders were able to dominate the final stages.
Dani Ceballos had also been taken off less than ten minutes earlier, so any significant threat from midfield was nullified because of the decisions made by the Gunners boss.
Arsenal may well have been able to hang on at 2-1 had they stuck with more attacking influence in the middle of midfield as their defence, in theory, wouldn't have had to face a barrage of pressure.
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