The Gunners scored three in the opening half and Wenger believes that they dropped physically in the second half, something that they would improve on as the season progresses.
Advertisement
This, then, was the ideal tonic – a promising performance and result, albeit against opponents they really should overpower – required heading into the global break.
When a move to Arsenal was on the cards, Mustafi spoke to global team-mate Ozil and now readily admits he can not wait to link up with the Gunners. There is now a two-week break and we need to make sure we have a home game and keep winning.
“He told me everything I wanted to know”.
He added: “I think overall the performance was a strong one. Everything he said was very positive and I was quickly convinced”.
The Gunners secured their first victory of the new Premier League season as goals from Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil saw them race into a 3-0 first-half lead at Vicarage Road.
The pressure had been on Wenger and his side heading into the weekend after flawless starts from both Manchester clubs had left them playing catch-up. The combination of Ozil and Sanchez won the penalty converted early on by Cazorla, then Sanchez did enough to dispatch Theo Walcott’s pinpoint cross before Ozil’s bullet header from the Chile international’s cross.
“I believe he has a good mixture of short and long balls, in midfield it is important for us to sometimes stretch the defenders, ” Wenger continued.
Wenger said after the game that the club expected to complete moves for Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez in a double deal amounting to £52m, but the Frenchman is still happy with his existing squad. “We got a vital three points”. Like everybody else, we are going to fight to win every game to be in the mix until the last kick.
“A lot of players are new so we have to prepare later”.
Advertisement
Watford, who started with three former Spurs players in Huerelho Gomes, Younis Kaboul and Etienne Capoue, nearly equalised on 24 minutes, but Petr Cech pulled off a point-blank save as Laurent Koscielny nearly headed into his own net.
