Wenger: Deeney comments fired us up
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger admits Troy Deeney’s “cojones” comment gave his side extra motivation to beat Watford and return to winning ways in the Premier League.
Goals from Shkodran Mustafi, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan ensured the Gunners stopped a three-game losing streak in the league in a 3-0 victory yesterday and also made Deeney eat his words.
In the wake of Watford’s win over Arsenal in October’s reverse fixture, Deeney suggested that the Gunners lacked a “bit of cojones, a bit of nuts”, but it was the Hornets striker who had a difficult afternoon this time around as he had a second-half penalty saved by Petr Cech.
The Gunners were reminded of his comments before the game and Wenger says they were a factor. “You cannot be a footballer without pride, or any sportsman without pride,” he said. “All these things come in, for how much I don’t know, but of course it plays a part. “I wanted to absolutely win this game, it was difficult, but it gets us out of that negative spirit that we were in.”
Although Arsenal did breeze to the points in the end, they were reliant on Cech who made a string of fine saves, in hs 200th Premier League shut-out.
“A record like that needs a lot of motivation and a huge level of intelligence because you don’t last that long in the game if you’re not intelligent,” said Wenger.
Watford boss Javi Gracia said: “I am disappointed because I can’t believe that we didn’t score a goal.”