Finger flicking GOOD
DEENEY DUCKS TROUBLE FOR THAT DODGY-DIGIT CELEBRATION
JAVI GRACIA has told Troy Deeney to keep his fingers crossed in future after the Watford captain escaped a ban for his middle-digit goal celebration.
The Hornets head coach was relieved a disciplinary panel of three elite ex-referees could not reach a unanimous verdict that Deeney’s gesture, after he had opened the scoring in the 4-1 win against Chelsea, was a red-card offence.
Gracia has no plans to strip Deeney of the armband but he has warned the players he wants no return to the bottom of the Premier League’s fair play table, where Watford have been replaced by today’s opponents West Ham.
If all three officials had agreed his gesture (right) was worth a sending-off, Deeney would have been suspended for four games – two for the gesture, plus two more because of earlier misdemeanours this season – and he would have missed 11 out of 20 League matches in the sin bin.
Gracia said: “Troy is our captain, he knows what is the best behaviour and I’m sure he will do better in future. He has had an ankle problem this week so I have not spent much time with him but everybody knows what happened and as a club we accept the decision, just as we have accepted other decisions all season.” Gracia has banked four points from his first two league games since taking over from Marco Silva, but Watford are not out of the woods yet and their injury list is colossal. The Spaniard revealed: “We have 17 players available and 12 injured so I don’t have many problems now to choose 18 players. I just try to take advantage of the resources available to me.”
Gracia expects full-back Kiko Femenia, defender Miguel Britos, midfielder Will Hughes, and goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes to resume full training with the firstteam squad next week.