Referee:Mike Dean
Attendance:20,457
clips of Jon Marks BBC 3CR commentary Goals:1 2 3
Watford vs Huddersfield Town: Javi Gracia still seeking improvements after Terriers success
PICTURES: A selection of images as Watford see off Huddersfield Town
Will Hughes: Entire Watford squad benefitting from Roberto Pereyra and Gerard Deulofeu’s quality
Isaac Success: Will Hughes hails hard working Watford forward after impressive Huddersfield display
Watford: Isaac Success keen to build on goalscoring turn against Huddersfield Town
Watford defender Adrian Mariappa praised for being ‘always ready’ to play
Kiko Femenia believes Watford need to maintain high performance levels
Two sublime individual goals from Roberto Pereyra and Gerard Deulofeu helped Watford secure their best start to a top-flight season and send Huddersfield to the foot of the table.
Watford now boast 19 points from 10 games – bettering their 17 at the same stage of the 1982-83 campaign, where they finished second.
The current Watford manager could not be happier with his squad, but does not expect them to emulate Leicester’s shock title of 2015-16. “This is the best squad in the Premier League,” he said. “I don’t think we’d be able to achieve to win the championship. But we are going to try to enjoy every game, and try to do that for our supporters, help them enjoy it with us.
Nonetheless, here was a challenge we’ve rarely experienced before, certainly since the 1980s. That of being the side… not just favourites but comprehensive favourites, odds-on favourites, expected to win in a top flight game. As with all unfamiliar things it doesn’t feel altogether comfortable, as positive an indicator as it may be of the status to which we’ve elevated ourselves. You’re much less open to disappointment – and pressure – as the underdog. Nor had this edginess been improved by finding ourselves placed at exactly the same spot in Wagamama as we had been pre-Bournemouth. Or by discovering, now as then, that it was much bloody colder than anticipated necessitating hat purchase for the second home game on the trot. (Or, as an aside, that the hat was too small. The costume fitters of the Adhoc theatre group will roll their eyes, full of complaints at the the prohibitive size of my head. Nonetheless… a one size fits all hat shouldn’t be too small…).
The joy was tempered somewhat by the worrying news of Glenn Hoddle’s collapse. Then, when I returned home, I heard of the Leicester owner’s helicopter crashing and the death of a Brighton fan after their game. The Leicester owners have been such a boon to both the club and the town, when something so awful happens, all football fans share the pain. My thoughts are with the family and friends of all affected this weekend.
clips of Jon Marks BBC 3CR commentary Goals:
Thereafter, profligacy rather spared the visitors until Hazard, whipping in a glorious equaliser that dipped under Orestis Karnezis’s outstretched left hand, made it level. Briefly, tantalisingly, Chelsea dared to consider inducing another late Watford implosion but it would be the champions who unravelled. Janmaat, Deulofeu and the substitute Pereyra would each glide into space to drive home their advantage while the majority inside the arena pinched themselves in the giddiness of victory. “It’s difficult to explain how I feel at this moment,” said Gracia. “We needed the three points badly but for motivation and to believe in our possibilities, in our work, today was very important.”
