Javi Gracia has said that Troy Deeney does not owe him an explanation after he was given a straight red card during Watford's home defeat against Arsenal.

The Hornets' skipper was sent off after just 12 minutes with Watford trailing 1-0 at the time, after he barged into Lucas Torreira off the ball.

However, the Watford boss said he disagreed with the referee's decision to brandish the red card and said Deeney did not owe him an explanation for his actions.

"He hasn’t got to explain to me anything, I could see the play," he said.

"I could see the contact with his hand, or with his arm, but never with his elbow and I can't understand that decision, but I accept it and we tried to look for the solution during the game.

"Troy put his arm like this, it’s true there’s contact here, it’s with his arm or his hand I don’t know which part exactly, I never saw any aggression.

"I don’t understand why the referee took that decision."

Gracia felt that it was unfair to dwell on the result after what he felt was an impressive team performance from Watford under difficult circumstances. 

He said: "We’ve competed really well with ten players today, so my players don’t deserve that we only speak about the result.

"It’s true they got the points, but for us in my opinion we had a good performance. We dominated the game.

"To play with ten players against Arsenal was very demanding for us. I think we tried and showed our spirit our character, creating chances when we were able to do it - one hit the bar, one the post and other chances.

"It was tough for us, but today I think my players deserve recognition and not only for us to be speaking about the result.

"They made a big effort and I'm very proud of them."