Chelsea made it five wins on the spin in the Premier League as they claimed a 2-1 victory over bottom-of-the-table Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday. The Blues got off to the perfect start as inside the opening five munites Tammy Abraham put them in front with his ninth goal of the season – the England international latching onto Jorginho’s sumptuous pass before lifting the ball over the advancing Ben Foster.
Frank Lampard’s side threatened to run riot after that, with Watford having Foster to thank for not falling further behind, with the pick of the goalkeeper’s saves coming when he expertly tipped Christian Pulisic’s glancing header over the top.
Gradually Watford grew into the contest with Gerard Deulofeu driving a left-footed effort just wide of the target, but Chelsea remained a threat going forward and Mason Mount again drew the best from Foster, who was forced to tip the midfielder’s strike from the edge of the area onto the crossbar.
Chelsea again started the second half strongly and they doubled their lead on 55 minutes. This time Abraham turned provider as his pin-point low cross was steered home by Pulisic from close range – the American making it four goals in a week following his hat-trick against Burnley.
The belief appeared to drain out of Watford after that, although Chelsea could not find the killer third goal, with Foster again proving a reliable last line of defence when he denied Pulisic from a tight angle.
Then with 10 minutes remaining Watford found a route back into the game when VAR intervened to award the Hornets a penalty after Jorginho was adjudged to have tripped Deulofeu in the area – the contact looked minimal but the spot-kick was given.
Deulofeu dusted himself down to coolly convert from 12 yards and set up a grandstand finish, however, Watford ultimately could not grab a dramatic late equaliser, with Kepa Arrizabalaga producing a superb save to deny opposite number Foster, who came forward for the final free-kick of the contest.
The victory lifts Chelsea up to third in the standings, while Watford are still awaiting their first win of the campaign and are now five points adrift of safety.
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