Three things we learned from Watford fantastic win vs Tottenham
Watford maintained their 100% start of the season and handed Tottenham Hotspur their first defeat of the season with a 2-1 win at Vicarage Road on Sunday.
Having fallen behind to Abdoulaye Doucoure’s 54th-minute own goal, the Hornets responded spectacularly, recovering to claim all three points through headers from Troy Deeney and Craig Cathcart.
With the win over Spurs, Javi Gracia’s Watford move to third in the Premier League table. Here are three talking points from the encounter at Vicarage Road.
A European finish?
None would have favoured Watford to be in the top-4 after the first four games of the season. However, the start Watford have made has been remarkable and the victory against Tottenham will be a major scalp as they had to dig deep to respond after falling behind to an unlucky own goal.
Gracia’s men are establishing themselves as a physically dominant and tough side to beat, and based on their performances in the first four games, there is no reason why the Hornets can’t achieve a European finish this term.
Christian Kabasele was immense
For Watford, it was another three points and there were a lot of good performers against Spurs. However, to keep one of the Premier League’s most potent and buzzing attacks quiet for large periods of the game is something massive and that will surely delight Javi Gracia.
That was largely possible, thanks to the contribution of Christian Kabasele, who stayed rock solid at the back. Kabasele gave very little room for Harry Kane to breathe and organised the defence very well.
Despite conceding an unfortunate goal after defending so well, Kabasele never showed signs of any frustration and motivated his team’s creative players to buck up.
Tottenham lacked the cutting edge
After putting Manchester United to the sword quite convincingly on Monday, one would have expected the Tottenham attackers to continue in the same vein at Watford. Instead, they were lethargic and their attack lacked a cutting edge at Vicarage Road.
Doucoure’s own goal after 54 minutes seemed to give Spurs the tonic they badly needed to kickstart their engine but Mauricio Pochettino’s side were awful after taking the lead, conceding simple headers from Deeney and Cathcart.
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When the north Londoners fell behind, Pochettino had little to call on from the bench. Tottenham’s attack lacked a real cutting edge, with Lucas Moura being the only spark in the dull defeat at Watford.
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