Interview

'We wanted to show fight and prove them wrong'

After three consecutive defeats in the Premier League, we returned to winning ways with a confidence-boosting victory against Watford.

Much of the pre-match build-up revolved around Troy Deeney’s comments back in October, when the Hornets skipper questioned out fight and application, but Rob Holding said that only inspired us going into Sunday’s game.

"It was definitely in the back of our minds," the defender told Arsenal Media at the final whistle.

"We don’t like coming off the pitch and someone saying that about us. We want to show our fight. I think today with a clean sheet – they didn’t have a sniff apart from with the penalty – we just wanted to prove them wrong and prove to our fans we’re still fighting and we believe."

Holding came into the side in place of Laurent Koscielny, who was rested between Europa League games, and played his part in helping the side keep a milestone clean sheet – it was Petr Cech’s 200th in his Premier League career.

"It’s been a tough spell,” Holding said. “We had the good result in Milan and we wanted to build on that and get another clean sheet. I’m buzzing for Petr to get over that milestone. It’s been hanging over his head for a while and it was a great penalty save from him. It was everything we wanted, really."