Sunday 6 March 2022 will match two clubs who train either side of the same hedge in Hertfordshire.
London Colney is home to both Arsenal FC and Watford FC. Watford moved into Arsenal’s old facilities and have upgraded it with money from both the Pozzo family, who own the club, and the bounty Watford have won from competing in the Premier League for six of the past seven seasons. The Gunners moved to new premises onsite after they built it with the proceeds of the sale of young striker Nicolas Anelka to Real Madrid in 1999.
The sides played one another in Watford’s first season in the top tier of English football. 1982/83 remains the Hornets’ most successful ever, with a second-place finish and UEFA Cup qualification. Arsenal finished in 10th place and lost two domestic semi-finals to Manchester United. Their 5-0 loss at White Hart Lane is better best forgotten by one half of North London.
Quite incredibly, Watford beat an Arsenal side coached by the great Don Howe both home and away that season. In November 1982 they won 4-2 at Highbury, which moved one commentator to compare Watford’s players to sparrows landing on a winter’s snowy lawn. Watford manager Graham Taylor asked when fans at Highbury last saw six goals in one game. In a remark that foreshadowed some famous criticism by Troy Deeney, the Watford Observer report noted that Arsenal striker Graham Rix ‘looked surprised when subjected to tackles’.
Pat Rice, the future Arsenal coach, played behind Nigel Callaghan on Watford’s right side, with Wilf Rostron supporting John Barnes on the left. Arsenal had a goal disallowed for offside, perhaps incorrectly, but Arsenal’s eight shots on goal eventually led to a breakthrough by teenager Stewart Robson. Barnes equalised before half-time after Ross Jenkins had flicked a Steve Sherwood goal-kick to Luther Blissett, and his team were 3-1 up thanks to a Blissett deflection off a Kenny Jackett shot and a second goal from Barnes himself. Paul Davis got the Gunners back into the game but a Robson own-goal sealed a famous away victory for Watford.
The return game at Vicarage Road at the end of April 1983 finished 2-1, as did the game in May 1984. Arsenal managed to win the 1983/84 game at Highbury 3-1, then hosted a seven-goal thriller (as it must be known) on September 1 1984 which they won 4-3. The game at Vicarage Road was played just before Christmas and ended in a 1-1 draw.
In the 1985/86 season, Watford beat Arsenal on the Monday and the Tuesday in a double-header which echoes through the ages. The Boxing Day fixture at the Vic was called off and re-arranged for April 1. One Watford player reckons Arsenal’s lads were hungover after losing the Highbury fixture 2-0! This can never happen again due to the new rules on rest days between fixtures.
In another quirk of the fixture list, Watford played Arsenal in Division One a week after an FA Cup quarter-final triumph at Highbury. Blissett and Barnes were still present and correct as the Hornets went behind to an Ian Allinson goal after a rotten mistake from centre-back John McClelland. Blissett flicked in an equaliser later in the first half before Watford took the lead thanks to a John Barnes header which John Motson called ‘a beauty’.
Then came the controversial third goal as the referee did not blow his whistle after the flag went up during an Arsenal attack. Remembering to play to the whistle, Blissett ran through a static defence and beat John Lukic at the second attempt. As if avenging their North London rivals, Tottenham trounced Watford in the semi-final in a game where the amateur goalkeeper Gary Plumley made his one and only appearance. Graham Taylor could have thrown David James into the game but chose not to risk a teenager who would one day play for England.
The 1987/88 season ended in relegation for Watford. Six of their 32 points came against Arsenal: 2-0 at home, 1-0 away as part of four games in the space of ten days in April. As you’ll discover, it took 30 years until Watford beat Arsenal again in any competition.
Graham Taylor was back in the Watford dugout for the 1999/2000 Premier League season where Arsenal, who had won the Double two seasons previously, did the double over Watford. It was 1-0 at Highbury thanks to a late Kanu goal (one of 30 attempts at goal by the team!) then 3-2 at Vicarage Road where Arsenal led 3-0 at half-time. Thierry Henry scored two of those three.
Watford’s next season in the top tier, 2006/07, also brought no joy against Arsenal. Theo Walcott made his debut in a 3-0 win at the Emirates Stadium, while on Boxing Day it took a late winner from Robin van Persie to bring three points to the away side. Ben Foster, who is in line to start Sunday’s game at time of writing, was the keeper that day, on loan from Manchester United, who kept the score down.
By the mid-2010s, Watford had regained their place in the Premier League but, unsurprisingly, class told. After keeping it goalless until the hour, Arsenal scored three times without reply at Vicarage Road. They followed it up later in the season at the Emirates with a 4-0 win that made amends for the FA Cup quarter-final loss the previous month, which was settled by an Adlène Guedioura thunderbolt. It only took them four minutes to break through that day, with Theo Walcott scoring the fourth goal ten years after his Arsenal debut.
On the last day of January 2017, a Younes Kaboul free-kick set Watford off to a famous win away from home. Troy Deeney’s goal turned out to be the winner and debutant M’Baye Niang became an instant cult hero. In August, a few weeks before Arsène Wenger marked 20 years in charge, Arsenal had won the reverse fixture 3-1, again with three first-half goals.
2017/18 had home wins for both teams, a last-minute Tom Cleverley goal live on TV helping Watford to a 2-1 win, and Arsenal striding to a 3-0 victory at the Emirates which included a missed penalty from Deeney. The striker was then sent off ten minutes into the game in April 2019, moments after Ben Foster had kicked the ball into the onrushing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for the game’s only goal. After being held for 80 minutes, Arsenal scored twice late on to win the home fixture 2-0, the second a beautiful move started and finished by Mesut Oezil.
During the pandemic-disrupted 2019/20 season, an energetic Watford managed 31 shots in a 2-2 draw at Vicarage Road. The game at the Emirates was a dead rubber, with Watford already relegated and playing for pride. Arsenal were 3-0 up after 33 minutes in a game played in July. Their former striker Danny Welbeck and their arch nemesis Deeney scored Watford’s consolation goals.
After Watford gained promotion at the first attempt, the teams next met in a scrappy game at the Emirates in November 2021. In a throwback to their glory days before Wenger, the game finished 1-0 to the Arsenal. Since then the club have sold Aubameyang while Watford have dispensed with manager Claudio Ranieri.
The past is absolutely no indicator of how the game will go this weekend, but it’s good to discover the previous meetings between two famous sides, full of drama and needle in equal measure.
So, ladies and gentlemen, please charge your glasses to a fixture which pits neighbour against neighbour.