Watford now boasts 19 points from 10 games – bettering their 17 at the same stage of the 1982-83 campaign, where they finished second. Roberto Pereyra, Gerard Deulofeu and Isaac Success fired Watford to a 3-0 Premier League win over Huddersfield to secure the Hornets’ best-ever start to a tp-flight campaign.
Javi Gracia’s men coasted through this clash in truth, with Huddersfield always game but ultimately outclassed at Vicarage Road. Now winless in 10 this term, the Terriers’ were at times bystanders as their worst start to a top-flight campaign deepened still further.
Watford were able to bypass the visiting midfield at will, leaving the hard-working but limited Huddersfield needing either a huge change of luck, January reinforcements – or both – to avoid relegation. Watford strolled into total control of this match inside 20 minutes, Argentina star Pereyra striking first for his fifth league goal of the campaign.
Pereyra capped a fine jinking run with an outrageous shoulder-drop dummy to bamboozle the visiting defence – before slotting past the helpless Jonas Lössl to open the scoring. Deulofeu then doubled the hosts’ advantage with another eye-catching finish, albeit amid further shoddy defending.
The Spaniard fooled Chris Löwe all too easily – the Terriers defender far too quick to slide in – ghosted past Jonathan Hogg and then lashed home in style. Löwe’s long-range drive forced Ben Foster into a top-drawer save, tipping onto the bar, as Huddersfield finally threatened.
Philip Billing saw another fine drive tipped over, and then Laurent Depoitre headed well wide from a corner when he should have hit the target as a minimum. Deulofeu should have heaped the misery on Huddersfield after the break, but instead chipped wide with the goal at his mercy. The midfielder latched onto Isaac Success’s defence-splintering pass, evaded the onrushing Lössl only to dink wide at the last.
The second half meandered along with precious little incident until Success tapped in Watford’s third at the death to seal a training-ground ruse. After feinting to lump a free-kick into the box, Watford cut back to Étienne Capoue, who chipped over the top for Kiko Femenía on the inside-right.
And when Femenía drilled in a low cross, Success tapped home under zero pressure.
Source: The Guardian
