No one could argue with Troy Deeney's comments that Arsenal lacked "cojones" after Watford's 2-1 win at Vicarage Road just over a fortnight ago.

It wasn't a groundbreaking comment by any means, on BT Sport after the game, but the fact it came from a professional still playing in the Premier League was more noteworthy.

Few others would have the boldness to come out and say it, scared of rocking the boat or reliving their comments at a later date, if it should come back to bite them.

One of those who wished Deeney did not put his head above the parapet in such a way is Marco Silva, who confirmed only that he had a conversation with his captain over the incident, and that he would prefer his staff to focus on themselves.

You can understand why Deeney said it, he was asked a question and answered it, honestly and truthfully. But perhaps he should have understood what would follow.

Deeney's honesty on and off the pitch is at times a real quality, but it comes with its drawbacks as well.

And one thing it did was ensure the conversation in the following week was more about the ongoing fallout, with Arsene Wenger, Per Mertesacker and Jack Wilshere all having their say, rather than Watford's magnificent and historic win.

To be fair, outside of Hertfordshire the spotlight would have been on another defeat for Wenger rather than the Hornets going fourth anyway, but the debate over Deeney and "should he, shouldn't he" didn't help.

There's less doubt that the Hornets captain's latest incident, putting his hands around the mouth of Joe Allen on Saturday, has at least taken some of the talk away from Watford's poor performance and onto the injury-time clash instead, and Deeney has been rightly banned for the fracas.

Silva is still yet to talk on the subject, but it takes little guesswork to work out that the head coach will be fuming at the situation. He demands focus and drive from his players at all times, and getting distracted by letting emotions boil over is not something he would entertain.

Considering the captain was having to bide his time on the sidelines, and has already been on the bench for six games so far, Deeney is now not far from treading a fine line to impress his boss.

Silva has already said he would have liked to bring in Islam Slimani in the summer, and while this may have been more of a nod towards the exiled Stefano Okaka, it still suggests he was not happy with the Hornets' attacking options overall.

We are not at this stage yet, but the question must be asked as to who would take Deeney off Watford's hands if he does fail to find favour under the current regime, because Silva is not the kind of head coach to be irritated repeatedly.

And while Deeney is too good to be sat on the bench like he has been for much of this campaign so far, his stock is already lower than it was at the end of last season and will fall more significantly if he can't force his way back into the starting line-up once his ban is over.

What would serve the 29-year-old well is to get his head down, let his feet do the talking and get back to the kind of form we saw from him earlier in the year, or for most of 2015/16.

Because there's a reason why he is Mr Watford, and it would be a waste if that were to be undermined by anything other than footballing reasons.