Referee:Anthony Taylor Attendance:20,014
clips of Jon Marks BBC 3CR commentary Goals: 1 2
RELIVE – Watford vs Crystal Palace: Perfect Premier League start continues for Hornets
Watford make it nine points from nine with battling Crystal Palace win
Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson reflects on Watford defeat
Watford: Javi Gracia says it’s ‘special’ to get three consecutive Premier League wins
PICTURES: A selection of images from Watford’s historic win over Crystal Palace
Ben Foster: Javi Gracia’s style key to Watford’s flying Premier League start
Watford: Javi Gracia pleased with Roberto Pereyra’s all-round contribution
Watford’s Christian Kabasele highlights importance of team spirit as winning run goes on
The Hornets maintained their perfect start in the Premier League to move behind Liverpool and level with Chelsea at the top of the table on goal difference.
Wilfried Zaha struck 12 minutes from time at Vicarage Road to raise hopes of a visiting fightback but the hosts held on as Roberto Pereyra’s 53rd-minute strike and Jose Holebas’s freak second (71) proved enough.
This snarl of a game was deep into stoppage time when Luka Milivojevic swung over one last hopeful corner kick and, with the majority in the arena anxiously holding their breath, Joel Ward leapt unchallenged into the six-yard box only to head wide of the post. The locals’ outpouring of relief at the miss was almost as deafening as the raucous delight which greeted the final whistle moments later.
The build-up to this game was all about Harry Hornet who, in answer to a question from a journalist, had been branded a ‘disgrace’ by Roy Hodgson for an incident two years ago that I doubt Hodgson had actually ever seen, when Harry collapsed behind Zaha while the post-match handshakes were happening. Sticking up for your player is all well and good but Roy lost all credibility when he claimed, with a straight face, that Zaha didn’t dive. Sorry, Roy he gets booked for it, which was what provoked Harry’s action. You couldn’t help but feel that Roy’s words would come back to haunt him.
It feels more like March than August bank holiday weekend. Palace have brought the traditional Croydon microclimate with them and it dampens our quick start before it gets going. Only the hissing, spitting hot fat of this fixture burns on unperturbed, and it hadn’t needed Roy Hodgson ambling into a Harry-shaped animal trap in the visitors’ pre-match press conference to ignite it. Our encounters have a bad-tempered, even spiteful undercurrent all of their own.
It only took four minutes for the game’s first talking point to occur. As Capoue tripped Zaha in the middle of the pitch, the referee awarded the midfielder a yellow card. At the time and due to where I was sitting I thought this decision was harsh. Replays show however that Capoue may have been lucky to stay on the pitch, after a potentially dangerous challenge.
While a first ever Premier League point is not to be sniffed at Brighton will wonder how they did not tick off all the mini missions they need to convince themselves they mean business at the highest echelon of the English game. Three matches in and a goal still eludes them. A confidence-boosting win is still needed as soon as possible. It was not for want of trying, here, particularly when Watford’s numbers were depleted in the 24th minute after Miguel Britos was sent off when his dangerous, hotheaded challenge left Anthony Knockaert floored.
Miguel Britos was shown an early red card after his dangerous tackle on Anthony Knockaert but the visitors were unable to capitalise on their advantage
BSAD report: There have been many changes at Watford over the last couple of months as the Vicarage Road Revolution gathers momentum. But few of those changes can have been as significant as this – tea with milk. Not tea with powdered crap or, as I once had at Ipswich, tea with white bits floating around in it like one of those snow scene shaky wotsits – tea with proper milk. Oh, happy day!
