We have been totally diabolical today

8 minutes can’t go quick enough

So, it’s the last ten minutes. They’ve been a man short for ages. Now they are overrunning us. Sigh.

FFS arsenal sort it out!

Watford allowed to walk the ball forward in to our box and have a very good chance blocked by AMN.

I’m utterly fuming at the brainless nature of this. Arsenal doing everything we can to throw this away!

We haven’t been this bad since the last away game.

Is Özil playing?

Leno has earnt his wage today...........................

Lucky to get away with pushing one of their players over though.

With this performance and without deeney a red we lose this comfortably. We’re doing our best to mess it up.

Right up there with the worst we’ve been at any point of the season

Stop giving away soft free kicks in dangerous areas!!!

Another chance wasted

Never in doubt.

HA!

My Arse.

Thank goodness for that. Excruciating in the extreme. 3 points, clean sheet, 4th place. That’s it really.

We get an away win. We have a clean sheet on the road and I can possibly be accused of being ungrateful but why do I feel...hmmm...disappointed may be too strong if not accurate, hmm...not confident maybe.

We’re desperately trying to qualify for the Champions League. But we’ll have to step up considerably if we are not to be embarrassed in that competition.

The points are all that matter but we were really poor considering the man advantage and the gift of a goal early on.

I think you just have to say we have too many players who cannot perform away from home. Simples.

I though Kos did well tonight, Torreira was lively for the time he was on but really everyone else was bang average.

Watford probably should have had a pen for the Leno push as well.

Poor old Mavro looked out of his depth. Sad because I was really willing him to look the part.

Massive win with 2 huge leg ups that we got lucky with. Lucky that both their gk and their striker had moments of madness.

I’ve seen nothing today that gives me any confidence that we can win any of our remaining away games. This is a serious problem that is going to make or break our top 4 hopes. It feels like so much of our immediate future hangs on us making top 4, more than any other club.

Napoli will have been licking their lips at that tonight.

On the Leno push, was the ball in play? If the corner hadn’t actually been taken then nothing can be done.

I don't expect us to get past Tottenham but we don't have to. It's in our hands but I simply can't see a win at Wolves. We may not need a win at Wolves. Of course this is assuming we beat Palace at home. Its a derby but we should dispatch them. I can easily see a draw at Wolves and it may not hurt us if the Chelsea and Man Utd drop points which they should and they have to play each other. We have a game in hand over Chelsea and if we win that game in hand we are ahead of them by 3 points. So a draw wouldn't kill us at Wolves. Man Utd is what is worrying. City has to win there but its a huge derby and so a draw is entirely possibly since its at OT.

Interesting times. We threw away chances to win this game 2 or 3 nil and get some goal differential. Oh well. Each match at a time. Napoli first, then Palace at home.

We definitely need to score in Naples. If they get an early goal, which they probably will, then we could easily crumble. We struggle to cope with Watford away when they are down to ten men let alone the intense pressure of a game against Napoli.

Excellent point Rich and I think spot on too.

Don't pens occasionally get given when there is pushing and shoving at corners before the kick is taken?

Bit rubbish but 3 points all that matters at this stage. Still in the hunt!

How the hell can you call Mustafi 'bang average' tonight? He and Koscielny were BOTH our best players, followed by Leno and Xhaka who were also way better than 'bang average'.

Sorry Bernard, Mustafi was still diving in all over the place (as per usual) and Xhaka failed to control the midfield in any really meaningful way. I wouldn't give either more than an average mark. Neither are topclass footballers in my opinion.

Leno was excellent but I am talking about outfield players and if your keeper is a stand-out player against ten men I'm not sure that is partucularly reassuring from a performance point of view.

We were against ten men and they often looked the better side. Thankfully we got the double bonus of a sending off and a soft early goal. Had it remained 11 v 11 I think we'd be looking at another defeat.

Save for a few needless fouls I thought mustafi was decent. He seemed to win every header in the last 20 mins. Mustafi certainly can’t be blamed for our inability to put the game to bed

Sorry socrates, you don't understand defending. You gave evidence for that with Mertesacker, who I showed a whlle back saved us on average 0.3 of a goal every single league game he played, compared to those he didn't. I would agree Mustafi isn't a top class player and I won't be bothered if he's sold. But to call his performance tonight 'bang average' goes beyond foolish. It's idiotic.

Going forward was our main problem today. He had a fine start to the season, but replacing Iwobi should be looked at. Mkhitaryan was very poor. Indeed, he often is and to be fair Özil was much better than him.

Could not agree more. Also, who knows who the ref will be. Factor in a card happy ref and we could be down to 10 men in no time at all as when we are under pressure players dive in all the time. The misses in the last Napoli game took this from a relatively easy game to the old maxim - 2-0 is the most dangerous score in football. We play like we just did in the last 2 games and we will go out.

Strange you did not mention Ramsay who was bang average. But then I am getting used to the love in for Ramsay on here, who has never consistently achieved and is injury prone. Tonight Ramsay got the ball on a number of occasions and just passed backwards, once to Mustafi who was in a worse position than him.

Our go forward is a real problem and has been in most away games all season. Players do not put themselves in forward positions to receive passes.

Ramsey today was bang average but I restricted myself to Iwobi and Mkhitaryan who I felt were even worse than bang average. I therefore felt they deserved a special mention.

Among the many areas of the squad that need improving it is games like last night that show how desperate we are for wide men who have more of an end product.

If we play 1 up top we have to have more threat from out wide. If Emery’s modus operandi is high press, play out from the back, lure opponents on and strike on the counter then a wide player in the mould of a hazard type is massive. Obviously hazard is £100m player but it is more the type of player he is that we need.

We’ve won all 5 of the games we’ve played immediately after Europa league knock out games.
By way of contrast Chelsea have drawn 2 and lost 3

In Torreira’s 45 minutes he won the ball back 10 times. Amazing to think we went 8 years or so without a decent destructive midfielder

What happens now

We’ve got a great chance looking at that on paper. I just don’t feel confident at all. If we can get to the Leicester game still in the top 4 We could do it.

Mustafi is always a mistake waiting to happen. Last night he made many good defensive headers, as Rich mentioned, but he also made several silly fouls with his typically rash challenges from behind. One particular incident springs to mind where he needlessly went to ground completely missing the ball and allowing the Watford player in on goal. Only a poor first touch prevented a goal.

Mertesacker was such a great defender that every summer we were fending off the likes of Bayern, Madrid. Barca, United etc who were desperate for his services?

None of our players, bar Kos and Leno, deserved more than a 6.5 out of 10 last night.

Poor old Mavro looked leaden footed and cumbersome last night. I hope it was just nerves and rustiness because the signs were not great.

I really felt for him because he was kind of thrown in at the deep end.

Anyone interested in a ticket for Sundays game against Palace?

Face value?

Mertesacker won over 100 caps for Germany. We conceded on average 0.3 of a goal less in every league game he played compared to those he missed. I respect many of your views on football but not the defensive side of the game. Yesterday Mustafi stands alongside Koscielny and Leno as one of our best players. If you genuinely can't see that, many of your opinions on defenders are ill-thought out and ignorent.