Arsenal 1-2 Watford: Gunners stunned at home as title hopes suffer huge blow.
Arsenal’s Premier League title bid was left in tatters as they failed to recover from Watford’s early double blow in the visitors’ shock 2-1 win at Emirates Stadium.
Younes Kaboul’s deflected free-kick opened the scoring, while Etienne Capoue pounced on Gabriel’s loose throw before venturing forward unchallenged and drawing a save from Petr Cech, from which Troy Deeney pounced on the rebound.
It should have served as a wake-up call to Arsenal, for whom manager Arsene Wenger is still serving a touchline ban, but it was the visitors who remained on the front foot and they saw efforts from Sebastian Prodl and Miguel Britos repelled before the end of a first half in which Aaron Ramsey was forced off injured.
It was Alex Iwobi who pulled one back, volleying in Alexis Sanchez’s cross as Wenger’s men made their dominance of the ball count.
Substitute Lucas Perez struck the crossbar five minutes from time but, having weathered the storm, Walter Mazzarri’s side clung on to claim a win that ought to quieten speculation over the Italian’s future.