Arsene Wenger has lavished praise on his Arsenal players for a solid performance away from home at Watford.

After a lacklustre start to the season, Arsenal were looking to come out all guns blazing against Watford, and they did after Alexis Sanchez won a penalty, which Santi Cazorla smartly converted with just nine minutes on the clock at Vicarage Road.




The Gunners continued to pummel Walter Mazzarri’s men and got the second goal when Sanchez bundled home a cross from Theo Walcott in the 39th minute. And the game looked dead and buried when Mesut Ozil’s header nestled into Heurelho Gomes’ net just before the break for Arsenal’s third.

Watford looked far more threatening after the break, and debutant Roberto Pereyra's left-footed strike on the hour mark gave Watford some hope as the home side pulled a goal back. Petr Cech made a double save from Jose Holebas and Odion Ighalo in the 69th minute to keep Mazzarri’s men at bay.
 


The Hornets continued to knock on Arsenal’s door and Cech was again called into action ten minutes later, when he saved from a close range strike from Pereyra, before keeping out Ighalo’s shot.  

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Arsenal slowed the down the game in the final ten minutes and looked content keeping the ball in order to deny Watford possession, and a way back into the game.

Wenger admits that the first two games didn’t go according to plan for various reasons, but believes against Watford his Arsenal team displayed a solid all round performance.

The Frenchman also feels some of his top players, such as Ozil, are still not at their peak fitness and indicated that a lot more is to come from his team in the coming weeks and months.

Wenger told Sky Sports: “I believe we shot ourselves in the foot in first game and were under huge pressure. We had two difficult away games, but today I believe we had a good solid performance.

“We had a good cushion at half time. At the moment we are not completely there physically and could see that in second half.

“Ozil is not physically there completely but what we want from Ozil is assists and goals and I hope he can get that this season, 10 or 15 goals plus the chances he creates.”

Arsenal will look to pick up some momentum after the international break when they host Southampton at the Emirates on 10th September.