First-half performance cost Watford, says Walter Mazzarri

Watford manager Walter Mazzarri bemoaned a poor first-half performance from his side as they lost 3-1 at home to Arsenal.

Mazzarri's side found themseleves 3-0 down at the break after goals from Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.

Watford, who were without Craig Cathcart and Miguel Britos, put in a much better showing in the second half with debutant Roberto Pereyra grabbing a consolation.

"The first half was all for Arsenal and the second half was all for us," Mazzarri told Sky Sports.

"We played a great game but unfortunately there were some episodes during the game that were not in our favour.

"We must tell the truth. Just before kick-off two of our main players couldn't play. The rest of the team weren't prepared for that."

Defeat means Watford are still without a win from their opening three games and drop into the bottom three as we head into the international break.

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However, Mazzarri is still confident a positive result will come for his side.

"We knew we had to prepare a team from the beginning," he said.

"We are still working on it. Slowly the performances and the results will come."

Watford have already been busy in the transfer market this summer but they are still open for business ahead of Wednesday's deadline.

"We will speak about the transfer market once it has finished," Mazzarri said. "I have already spoken to the owner.

"We know what we've being doing until now and we know what we want to do.

"We're happy and if nobody comes we are happy with the players we've got now."