WATCH - Arsene Wenger slams 'scandalous' decision to award Watford a penalty

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger

Independent.ie Newsdesk

Arsene Wenger hit out at a "scandalous" penalty decision after Arsenal lost their way and slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Watford.

The Gunners were leading through Per Mertesacker's first-half goal and had chances to make the Premier League game safe.

However, the Hornets got back in it through Troy Deeney's spot-kick, which came after referee Neil Swarbrick adjudged Hector Bellerin to have fouled Richarlison when their legs tangled.

Tom Cleverley capped the home side's impressive comeback with an injury-time winner, but manager Wenger was left talking about the penalty decision.

He told BT Sport: "I believe that we had many, many dangerous situations where we could have scored but didn't. We had opportunities to score the second goal.

"The decision on the penalty is a bit ridiculous and then we panicked a bit for their second goal and in the end we stand with a defeat.

"It is a scandalous decision, but what can we do about it? Nothing. We can talk and talk and talk. At the end of the day they scored.

"We dropped our level in the second half, we played very well in the first half. Despite that, we had the chances to score two and three."

Deeney believes something special is brewing at Watford after they continued their best start to a Premier League campaign.

The striker's arrival off the bench just after the hour sparked the Hornets' fightback and he said team spirit was there to see.

"We have had a great start to the season and when we play the big teams we don't want to do ourselves an injustice," Deeney said.

"It's not a bad start, but it doesn't mean anything now.

"We are just taking it game by game. We're having a great start, we've got a great bunch, I believe we are building something really good and you can see with the late goals it shows we have got belief and that we are all in it together.

"It's a massive team effort and it's a good win and we go again on Monday."