- Nick Ames's match report
- Full time: Chelsea 4-2 Watford
- GOAL! Chelsea 4-2 Watford (Batshuayi 90+5)
- GOAL! Chelsea 3-2 Watford (Azpilicueta 87)
- GOAL! Chelsea 2-2 Watford (Batshuayi 71)
- GOAL! Chelsea 1-2 Watford (Pereyra 49)
- Half time: Chelsea 1-1 Watford
- GOAL! Chelsea 1-1 Watford (Doucoure 45+3)
- GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Watford (Pedro 12)
- Team news
- Preamble
Live feed
- Nick Ames's match report
- Full time: Chelsea 4-2 Watford
- GOAL! Chelsea 4-2 Watford (Batshuayi 90+5)
- GOAL! Chelsea 3-2 Watford (Azpilicueta 87)
- GOAL! Chelsea 2-2 Watford (Batshuayi 71)
- GOAL! Chelsea 1-2 Watford (Pereyra 49)
- Half time: Chelsea 1-1 Watford
- GOAL! Chelsea 1-1 Watford (Doucoure 45+3)
- GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Watford (Pedro 12)
- Team news
- Preamble
Still want more? Well here you are.
Full time: Chelsea 4-2 Watford
That was such an enjoyable game. Both sides deserve enormous credit for their attitude and attacking ability, if not necessarily their defending. Watford will have regrets, particularly those missed opportunities at the start of the second half, but when the dust settles they will be proud of their performance. Chelsea will certainly be proud of the defiance they showed to recover from a quite abysmal start to the second half. By the end, Antonio Conte was back to his infectious, passionate best on the touchline. Thanks for your company, bye!
90+5 min Nobody will accuse Chelsea of lacking cojones after this game.
GOAL! Chelsea 4-2 Watford (Batshuayi 90+5)
Batshuayi seals the win, lobbing Gomes from close range. Britos’ scoop out of defence was headed back towards the area by Bakayoko, and Batshuayi held off Kabasele to lift the ball over Gomes with his ankle.
90+3 min Hazard kicks the ball away and is not booked, unlike Femenia earlier. I think the referee had his back turned. The Watford players aren’t happy.
90+1 min There will be five minutes of added time.
90 min Watford make their last change, Andre Gray for Mariappa.
88 min The score is a bit harsh on an admirable Watford side. It does, however, show how much resilience Antonio Conte’s teams have, because Chelsea were a shambles for the first first 25 minutes of the second half.
The goal came from another right-wing cross, this time by Willian. It skimmed off the head of the leaping Kabasele at the near post and came to Azpilicueta, who mistimed his header and shouldered the ball into the net!
GOAL! Chelsea 3-2 Watford (Azpilicueta 87)
Chelsea have won it!
87 min Davide Zappacosta replaces Pedro and almost creates a goal within two seconds with a fine cross that just evades Batshuayi at the near post.
86 min Richarlison and Doucoure work the ball across the box to Femenia, whose deep cross skims the head of the diving Carrillo and flashes well wide. That was another decent opportunity for Watford. Richarlison’s response to those hideous misses has been absolutely outstanding.
82 min Another chance for Batshuayi! Chelsea had a free-kick 40 yards from goal in a central position. Everybody expected a lofted ball to the far post but Fabregas fed a clever pass into the feet of Batshuayi, who shifted the ball to the side of Kiko Femenia and whacked a shot over the bar from 15 yards. Having done the hard part by making space for the shot, he might well have scored.
81 min In fact Watson has gone into midfield, with Cleverley moving left and Richarlison up front.
80 min Batshuayi cuts into from the left and curls a fine effort just wide of the far post. Watford make another change, with Ben Watson replacing Troy Deeney. That suggests a switch from 3-4-3 to 3-5-2.
78 min Kiko Femenia is booked for kicking the ball away.
77 min The game is much more even now, with Chelsea having a lot of the ball.
73 min Chelsea continue to defend like a bunch of amateurs. Cleverley’s curling free-kick to the far post finds the unmarked Kabasele, who heads straight at Courtois from eight yards. That was a poor effort.
GOAL! Chelsea 2-2 Watford (Batshuayi 71)
The substitute Michy Batshuayi equalises with a superb header! Pedro on the right curled a standard cross towards the near post, where Batshuayi got in front of Britos and flicked a powerful header from 12 yards that beat the desperate dive of Gomes and swirled into the net.
69 min “Mourinho should manage both Man Utd and Chelsea at the same time,” says Ian Copestake. “He will then be the Rick Wakeman of football, surrounded by banks of keyboards under his Prospero-like control.”
68 min Another Chelsea change: Willian replaces Marcos Alonso, with Azpilicueta moving across to the left.
67 min “The DVD of Watford’s season will be called ‘Keeping up with the cojones’,” honks Niall Mullen.
66 min Chelsea played well in the first half but that goal in injury time changed everything and they are a bag of nerves now. Carrillo surges away from Pedro down the right and crosses low towards Richarlison, whose shot deflects behind for a corner.
65 min A Watford corner is half cleared to Carrillo, who mishits a snapshot from just inside the area. That wasn’t a bad chance.
65 min The goalscorer Pereyra is limping off with what appears to be a knee injury. Andre Carrillo replaces him.
61 min A Chelsea substitution: Michy Batshuayi replaces Alvaro Morata.
60 min Hazard has started to get on the ball for the first time since the break. Chelsea need him now.
59 min “Chelsea’s recent performances (post Atleti) have been reminiscent of 2015-16 minus Mou poisoning the well,” says Chris Ross. “A few more ropey performances and I fear Conte’s for the inevitable exit. If that means Tuchel, I fancy a three-manager season. Or, failing that, a new manager by the start of next season. Richarlson looks fantastic. He’ll soon be taking tumbles in the Champions League.”
With Watford, hopefully #daretodreamyeah
58 min It’s nice to note that Richarlison is still demanding the ball at every opportunity, despite those two horrible misses. Watford have battered Chelsea since half-time; it could easily be 4-1.
57 min “Don’t blame Richarlison for failing to score,” says Charles Antaki. “It’s well known that he suffers from a vestibular condition which affects his balance, especially when his visual system registers that he’s in the penalty box.”
Charles Antaki may or may be an Arsenal fan. (It was a dive, mind.)
56 min Watford are rampant. Pereyra plays a nice return pass to Deeney, whose stinging shot from the edge of the box is well blocked by David Luiz. Moments later, Morata is booked for a petulant foul on one of the Watford defenders.
54 min Richarlison misses another sitter from six yards! This is crazy. Holebas’s inswinging cross from the right dipped over the head of David Luiz and Richarlison headed well wide of the right-hand post. He may have been unsighted but it looked a great chance, if not quite as good as the first.
53 min The next goal is huge - not just in this game but in Chelsea’s season. Rudiger, already booked, has a petulant kick at Richarlison. Some referees would have sent him off for that, though I don’t think it was quite enough for a second yellow.
52 min Chelsea are all over the show. This is starting to feel like that infamous Southampton game two years ago.
50 min On reflection, I think Richarlison might have been trying to find Deeney. It doesn’t matter because the ball ran through to Pereyra, who lifted it over Courtois from 10 yards.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-2 Watford (Pereyra 49)
Richarlison redeems himself with a fine pass across the box to Pereyra, who finishes coolly over Courtois. Watford are ahead!
49 min Richarlison misses an open goal from six yards! Kiko Femenia surged down the right and put in a beautiful low cross to the far post, where Richarlison got behind Azpilicueta and inexplicably sliced the ball wide with his left foot. How did he not score there?
47 min It’s been a cracking start to the half. Watford break through Pereyra, whose pass to Deeney in the box is splendidly intercepted by David Luiz.
46 min Chelsea almost score after 32 seconds of the second half. Mariappa, facing his own goal, has no option but to swing his foot at Azpilicueta’s stunning cross and the ball loops onto the roof of the net. Morata was behind him waiting to score.
46 min Peep peep! Watford begin the second half.
Shameless plug
This week’s episode of Nessun Dorma, the new 80s and 90s football podcast, includes Neil Ruddock and a bacon sandwich, Sir Alex Ferguson’s traumatic start at Old Trafford and the 1995-96 PFA Team of the Year. What’s not to love? Oh.
Half-time chit-chat
Ian Copestake “With crisis everywhere you look it’s almost as if Premier League football embodies some sort of capitalist model in which crisis is the desired state, where markets change and progress is based on constant adaptation. In short,comrade, all that is solid melts into air.”
Bill Hargreaves “Re Deeney’s comments, I think that he did show some restraint. Keown reported that he’d later, off-air, named people within the Arsenal team whose attitudes he thought didn’t help them, but didn’t want to make these comments public.”
Matt Ballantine “Look forward to the supplement ;o) presumably it’ll be in virtual reality. Btw Watford is definitely not London. It’s in the M25 but it’s outside of the green belt. And of most civilisation.”
Paul Moody “So who will Richarlison play for next year?”
Half-time reading
Half time: Chelsea 1-1 Watford
Peep peep! That was a really smart finish from Doucoure. There were so many players between him and the goal, so he cut across the ball to swerve it away from all of them and into a tiny gap at the near post.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-1 Watford (Doucoure 45+3)
Abdoulaye Doucoure equalises on the stroke of half-time! A long throw from Holebas on the right ricocheted around the box and bounced up towards Doucoure, who adjusted his feet smartly to clip a shot with the outside of the right foot that flashed past the unsighted Courtois.
45+2 min Holebas’s free-kick from the left bounces right across the face of goal, with no Watford player able to stick a boot on it.
44 min “What really is London?” asks Daniel Friedman. “An urban disaster inside the M25? A state of mind? The people served by the tube? From Elland Road everything from Luton to Brighton is London. But what do the people of Watford say?”
43 min A Chelsea goal is coming on the break, if not before half-time then certainly after. Watford are still passing it around nicely but they keep hitting a wall on the edge of the Chelsea area.
41 min “Although all football-related debate has of course been ended by the introduction of goal-line technology and VAR, famously leaving pubs up and down the country devoid of conversation and custom every Saturday and Sunday, I was wondering if you had a take on Troy Deeney’s comments after last week’s match against Arsenal?” says Matt Loten. “Alan Pardew seems to think that Deeney’s inflammatory, distracting, and humiliating assessment of Arsenal’s lack of stomach for the fight were unnecessary and deserving of his manager’s, and the PR department’s, opprobrium. Personally, I think it was a pleasant change to hear a footballer put across an eminently sensible opinion, and come off as very affable human being in the process.”
I didn’t see the incident interview, but generally speaking I really like Deeney. He’s a normal bloke who has a paunch and a great attitude and, as you say, hasn’t been media-trained to within an inch of his personality. He’s a gift from the past.
40 min Hazard moseys around a bit and finds Fabregas, who thwacks a rising drive from 25 yards that is palmed behind by the diving Gomes.
39 min Watford continue to dominate possession, though they haven’t created much. Antonio Conte teams are formidable when they take the lead.