Maybe Arsenal should have returned the ball to Watford...

One side was full of thuggery and poor sportsmanship. T'other 'twas pure as driven snow. There's to be no confusin' now as the one side, the one side that did its level best to honor the letter and spirit of every law, rule, regulation, and custom be  it written and unwritten was hard done by in the end as their commitment to fair play. There's just no justice in the world, none I say. Why, I remember a day when you could look a man straight in the eye, give his hand a firm shake, and know you'd struck a deal as unbreakable as oak. These days, I don't know what to make of this topsy-turvy world. Up is down, down is up. It's enough to make one lose faith. And yet we don't. We bravely soldier on, knowing that tomorrow is a new day. So it must be for the brave, indefatigable souls at Watford.

Arsenal 1-0 Watford: Player Ratings & MOTM Poll Results

Ten matches undefeated. Seven clean sheets. Four wins in a row. Three consecutive clean sheets. It's getting hard to resist feelings of unbridled optimism now that we've risen to fifth so quickly after flirting with being among the bottom three. Hell, if we defeat Liverpool by a paltry 11 goals, we'll overtake them on goal difference. Stranger things have happened. Seriously, though, we should remind ourselves that form is temporary, and that trip to Anfield after the international break looms large as our first stern test since that disastrous start to the season. Before we look two weeks into the future, let's allow ourselves just a little more time to savor the moment we inhabit now.  Here, then, without further ado, are the results of our post-match ratings poll!

Arsenal 1-0 Watford: Vote for Player Ratings & MOTM!

Tony Pulis's Stoke were up to their old tricks on Sunday, kicking out at, maiming, and gouging Arsenal left and right...oh, wait. It was Watford. Kevin Friend was awfully generous to the visitors, calling 19 fouls while issuing just three yellow cards before finally sending Kucka off in the 89th minute. By contrast, Arsenal committed just six fouls but had four players booked. It's a good thing that Emile Smith-Rowe found the back of the net, pouncing on a ball after Lionel Messi--er, Ben White, actually--was dispossessed after a slaloming run through the heart of the Watford defense. We should have had more, what with Aubameyang fluffing a pen straight at Foster and then, from an offside position, tapping in an Ødegaard cross/shot that looked to be going in anyway. Whatevs. It's another three points, a fourth straight win, and tenth undefeated. We now sit fifth in the Prem. Not bad. With that, lets' get to the player-ratings poll!

Arsenal 2-0 Watford—Vote for Player Ratings & MOTM!

Arsenal won its seventh in a row, bouncing Deeney's Hornets out 2-0 courtesy of an own-goal (or was it a Lacazette goal?) and another from Özil, and it's starting to feel like we are building actual chemistry and momentum, enough to start perhaps believing that Emery is making progress in
rebuilding the squad around his philosophy. Whatever it is, it's enough to see us keep pace with Tottenham and Man City, who each won, and create space between us and Man U, who (savor this) lost. Well, enough. Get down to the poll!

Arsenal 3-0 Watford—Vote for Player Ratings & MOTM!

Arsenal thrashed Watford thanks to goals from Mustafi, Aubameyang, and Mkhitaryan; and Čech saved Deeney's penalty and finally got his 200th clean sheet. We've left that dismal, depressing February behind and have looked invigorated and determined through the first two weeks of March. It's a fitting rejoinder to Mr. Deeney's now-infamous cojones remark—it was he after all who fluffed his line on the penalty. Aside from that he was largely anonymous, and, to be honest, the less said of him, the better. We have—believe it or not—bigger fish to fry. Adios. Let's get down to the poll!

Watford 2-1 Arsenal—Vote for Player Ratings and MOTM. It'll be cathartic!

Captain Per Mertesacker scored in his first Arsenal start since April to disrupt what had been a stultifying first half, and it looked like this would be enough to earn our first away-win of the season. Alas, Héctor Bellerín was caught off-balance and tripped in the box, and Swarbrick pointed to the spot. It was a bit harsh, as there was contact. Truth be told, though, Pereira sold the contact well, and we exposed ourselves to the dangers by failing to kill off the match. An old friend in Troy Deeney coolly scored it. From there, it looked like Watford would be more likely to find a winner, and indeed they were lively enough to hit an upright late on. Disaster struck in stoppage time when Tom Cleverley smashed it in during a scramble in front of our goal. Well, not much else left to say other than to rue the dropped points. Let's give the lads what they deserve...

Kos and Özil? Out. Kolašinac and Alexis? Out. Who's available for Watford?

Well, we return from the international break predictably worse for wear, with Koscielny and Mustafi injured and various others, such as Alexis and Kolašinac road-weary as well. On top of that, the break came at an inopportune time, interrupting a tidy little run of form that had seen us go undefeated, winning six of seven, and flirting with the idea of starting to dominate opponents. Yes, we did benefit from a softer stretch of the schedule, but we made the most of it and will need to refind some of that form as we travel to face Watford. Do not underestimate them. If nothing else, they've got Troy Deeney. And Capoue. Oh, and Cleverley.

Sánchez, Iwobi, and Welbeck, oh my! Arsène unlocks a lethal trio!

After what has to count as Arsenal's cakewalkiest of cakewalks, it's starting to look as if Arsène might have a few tricks up his sleeve even as the baying for his dismissal continues unabated. For the first time since doing so against Leicester way back in the old days when scoring against the Foxes was easier than scoring against Aston Villa, we put our past a Prem opponent and did so with a swaggering style that we haven't seen in ages. On one hand, we might say to ourselves, "yes, but it's only Watford", let's also say "this is the same Watford that had conceded just five times in its previous five outings." As for us, we've now scored eight in our last three. Arsène may have not found a magic potion, but he's not the snake-oil salesman some have suggested.

Arsenal 4-0 Watford—Vote for Player Ratings/MotM!

Arsenal waltzed to the comfortable victory over Watford that we should have had just a few weeks ago, with goals from Alexis, Iwobi, and Bellerín amounting to our most-confident and commanding performance in recent memory.  Midway through the second half, the real challenged seemed to lie more in how many cheeky little flicks and backheels we could string together rather than how many more chances we could create and convert. Walcott came on late and scored the fourth, more of an afterthought if anything.Nice as it was to see a bit of swagger on the pitch, one must remember that it was nothing less than the kind of result we should simply expect rather than celebrate. If this ushers in a winning streak to end the season, so much the better. For now, though, get down to the poll to rate our lads' efforts...

Arsenal vs. Watford: Revenge, yes, but a chance to gain on Tottenham!

Watford. Watford, of all clubs. Travel back just a few weeks, and the club with an elk as a logo and a Hornet as a mascot would have looked like just another speed-bump between Arsenal and a possible double. A third-consecutive FA Cup was still in the sights; the Prem was still within reach. Then, the unthinkable happened, and we're left grasping at straws. We've crashed out of the FA Cup. The Prem, however, still dangles just barely within reach. Barely. Arsenal must exact a measure of revenge.

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand at the Emirates...Near them, on the pitch,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
'My name is Arsèmandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. 'Round the decay
of that colossal Wreck, boundlesss and bare
the lone and level sands stretch far away."

Thus standeth Arsène's reign, crumbling to dust, slipping through his fingers just as he was on the cusp of seizing a destiny he had envisioned for so many years...

Arsenal 1-2 Watford—Vote in the Player Ratings/MotM Poll!

Well, I can barely bring myself to type anything, but here's the best I can do under the circumstances. After dominating proceedings for the first fifteen minutes, we settled into a rather grim torpor until Watford opened us up on their first shot on target in the match, adding a second from a screamer that seemed to go staight through Ospina. Welbeck pulled one back after being subbed on but missed a sitter that migth have earned us a replay—not that we'd've deserved one. Our mythic quest for a third straight FA Cup lies in ruins, and we have to pin all of our hopes on an epic finish to our Prem campaign to at least finish second. Well, let's get down to the poll and slate, er, rate our lads...

Walcott will lay waste to Watford. You read it here first.

After a frustrating season of inconsistent football, Arsenal may have finally ound its footing by smashing Hull City in a fifth round replay. For the first time since September, we scored more than three goals against an opponent with both Giroud and Walcott, themselves suffering from poor form of late, bagging braces. The sting of seeing Mertesacker, Gabriel, and Ramsey leave through injury still lingers, though, and we'll have to regroup quickly before Sunday's clash.

Return of Welsh Jesus: Ramsey resurrected against Watford...

The story of this one is that we eventually wore down a well-drilled, defensively tenacious, and physical side, one that bullied and pressed us up and down the pitch for the better part of an hour...only to fade down the stretch, as evinced by our scoring twice in under five minutes just after that hour-mark, and a third time shortly thereafter to close out the match. That third one, unnecessary though it was to the result, and beyond what it might mean for goal-difference in the long run, might just open the floodgates for a player who has beaten his head bloody against those gates for months, if not longer. On this day, Aaron Ramsey's squibbled goal mattered not a whit. Going forward, though, it could be massive.

Can Walcott lay waste to Watford without Alexis?

We come back from an international break flush with excitement, whether it be the successes of Gunners playing for their countries, the fact that we trounced Manchester United, or that José Mourinho seems to have pressed the self-destruct button. With that backdrop, we should perhaps expect to simply show up at Vicarage Road on Saturday and say "boo" in order to leave with three points secured. Actual banana-peels are less slippery than this one could be.