Cup joy against Gunners for competitive dad Deeney

Watford forward Troy Deeney basked in securing the family bragging rights as Quique Sanchez Flores’ men dumped holders Arsenal out of the FA Cup.

Deeney capped a superb individual performance at Emirates Stadium by laying on second-half goals for strike partner Odion Ighalo and Adlene Guedioura that sealed a semi-final spot.

Substitute Danny Welbeck pulled a one back with two minutes to play and Alex Iwobi went on to hit the post, but, much to the apparent frustration of Deeney’s Arsenal-supporting son, Arsene Wenger’s off-colour side were unable to force a replay.

“The most bragging rights I’ve got is my son is an Arsenal fan so he has to make the teas in the house today,” the Watford captain, who has been linked with Arsenal in the past, explained to BBC Sport.

“But we’re going to Wembley and for the town it will be a massive occasion. We don’t want to just go there and make up the numbers.”

Ighalo and Deeney have combined to excellent effect for the majority of this season, but, with neither man having scored for almost a month, Sunday’s trip to Emirates Stadium represented the ideal opportunity to silence any doubters.

“Me and Iggy have been doing that all season and we’ve been getting some stick from the press that we haven’t scored in three or four games, but there were a lot of unsung heroes out there for us,” Deeney added.

“I thought we deserved it, we stuck to the game plan well, counter-attacked well and had opportunities.”