Unai Emery believes his Arsenal side showed the required efficiency in front of goal after struggling for large parts of the game in their 2-0 win over Watford on Saturday.

Arsenal dominated possession from the first minute at the Emirates, but Watford looked threatening on the counter-attack regularly. The first real chance did fall for the home side when Alexandre Lacazette won the ball on the byline and rushed towards the box, but his toe-poked effort was just wide of the post.




The Gunners wasted two great chances to get ahead in the first half when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang failed to latch onto Hector Bellerin’s cross. The travelling ball arrived at the feet of Granit Xhaka, but his fierce shot was punched away by Ben Foster just ahead of the break.

Bernd Leno replaced an injured Petr Cech in the second half and he was called into action early when Troy Deeney’s head met Etienne Capoue’s free-kick, but the Arsenal goalkeeper turned it away through a diving save in the 51st minute.
 


Leno was again in action in the 69th minute when he blocked a shot from Andre Gray, who latched onto Deeney’s through ball.

Watford continued to mount pressure and the German made another great save from six yards from a Craig Cathcart shot five minutes later.

Error, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 76)


However, Arsenal scored against the run of play when Cathcart side-footed the ball into his own goal while preventing a shot from Lacazette in the 81st minute.

And just two minutes later the Gunners secured the three points when Mesut Ozil scored a second for the home side following a delightful one-two with Lacazette.

Emery lavished praise on Watford and admits that their position in the league table is not a coincidence as they are one of the most organised sides in the league.

He conceded that the flow of the game was not to his liking as Watford created problems for his side, but feels the Gunners were efficient enough towards the end of the game to snatch the three points.

Emery said in a press conference after the match: “They have 15 points because they are an organised team, very competitive.

“We knew before the match it would be difficult. We needed to be competitive.

“The ball was near our box a lot, the rhythm of the match was not what we wanted. The first half we were a little nervous.

“Our moments arrived in the second half and we showed efficiency to score.”

Arsenal are on a seven-game winning streak at the moment in all competitions and are fifth in the league table on 15 points.