Marco Silva spoke to captain Troy Deeney about his comments that Arsenal lacked "cojones" in Saturday's 2-1 win at Vicarage Road, the head coach confirmed.

Silva refused to say what the two had discussed on the back of Deeney's statement on BT Sport, which has rumbled on throughout the week with Per Mertesacker, Jack Wilshere and Gunners boss Arsene Wenger all reacting publicly.

The 40-year-old did not want to make such explicit statements about Deeney's opinion, voiced on BT Sport after the game, but made clear he had not agreed with the decision of his captain to broadcast it.

"Troy knows what is my opinion about what he said. I want to finish that situation now. I don’t want to say anything more about it.

"I speak with him about everything, what has happened in the match, and what I speak with all our other players.

"It’s important for us as a club to speak about our work, and us as a team. That’s what’s most important.

"We need to look inside and not outside, to respect ourselves as well and do our job."