A visibly seething Marco Silva kept his thoughts to himself over whether Troy Deeney had let him down with a third moment of controversy this season.

Deeney, the Hornets captain, was sent off for a challenge which was not the clearest red you will ever see as he barged into Huddersfield's Florent Hadergjonaj from behind, but did give referee Michael Oliver a decision to make with the Hornets already 2-0 down.

Silva revealed Oliver had told his skipper the decision was for the 'speed' of the challenge, and irrespective of whether he won the ball.

Deeney will serve a four-match ban because he has already been kept on the sidelines thanks to an incident with Stoke City's Joe Allen in October, which came only weeks after he had said Arsenal had lacked "cojones" in their 2-1 defeat to the Hornets.

The Portuguese head coach is normally candid but implicit in what he says on more contentious matters, but held back from commenting at all on whether Deeney had let him down.

He said: "I don’t want to talk about the situation. We will talk about some situations inside the dressing room but not now, it’s not the right moment to talk.

"But I have spoken with Troy. He has spoken with the officials as well. He said he touched the ball. They have said it’s not because you take the ball, it’s because of the speed of the tackle.

"In that moment, Troy makes the challenge, maybe it’s not his normal zone where he stays on the pitch, but he came to recover the ball.

"I don’t know what the referee in that moment was thinking or saw, because I haven’t spoken to him."