There’s a big flaw in your ploy, Troy
TROY DEENEY left the field cursing. The red card shown to him by referee Craig Pawson after 11 minutes was ‘f****** embarrassing’, he claimed. Indeed it was, but not in the way he imagined. Deeney long ago revealed his strategy against Arsenal. ‘Whenever I play them I think, “Let me whack the first one and see who wants it”,’ he said in 2017 after a very physical Watford side won 2-1 in a league match. So Deeney whacked Arsenal midfielder Lucas Torreira and it turned out it was Pawson and his assistants who wanted it, swiftly ending his participation. By any interpretation of the rules, giving someone a whack is illegal. Announcing the intention in advance is daft. And failing to connect the two and the potential consequence is f****** embarrassing.