Marco Silva defends Watford's aggressive approach as he prepares to go on the offensive against Arsenal

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In the uneven division of the Premier League, how do the have-nots play against the haves? That is the question that shapes up to half the matches on any given weekend. Do we get a parked bus, a game taking place in one half, one attack against the other defence? Or do we get something braver, riskier, with the potential for glory but also for humiliation?

Marco Silva knows what he prefers. Ever since he started his managerial career back with Estoril at the age of 34 he has played the same way, with the same idea. He tries to win every game, with the same aggressive, expansive style. The details might change but the ambition does not.

Which all sounds very nice but the downside is you can lose 6-0 at home to Manchester City. That is what happened at Vicarage Road on 16 September when Silva tried to take the game to Pep Guardiola’s side only for his team to be shredded. It felt like an argument for the opposite approach, digging in and shutting down, where at least the score is kept respectable for a while.

Arsenal come to Vicarage Road this Saturday evening and while they are not as good as City, they still have brilliant individuals and are capable of running away with games when they turn it on. So will Silva compromise on Saturday, go back in the other direction and try to sneak a point? No he will not.

Speaking at his press conference on Thursday afternoon, Silva gave an impassioned defence of his risky approach and said that he would never change, no matter the opponent, no matter the game.

“If you like to play to win, if you have one clear idea for the players, I cannot change this idea in one week because I will play against Arsenal, or I will play against Chelsea or City,” Silva said. “You can change sometimes the strategy for the match. You can play in different systems like we did against Swansea: we played 4-3-3 and then with five at the back. What we can change is our strategy for the match, in some moments our formation as well. We can change many, many things. But our idea, our style of play, is impossible to change.”

Silva said it would be a betrayal of everything he stands for as a manager, and his whole career, to change now. He took Estoril from the Portuguese second tier and the brink of bankruptcy all the way into the Europa League – an unprecedented rise – with this style of football. It won him the Portuguese cup with Sporting CP, the Greek league with Olympiakos, and it nearly saved Hull City from relegation last season too.

“This is my idea, since the first day when I passed the idea to my team and my players,” Silva said. “I tried to put into them a big ambition, even in our style of play. That is what I tried to do since my first day as a coach.”

There has been an ambition-deficit at Watford recently, especially during Walter Mazzarri’s underwhelming tenure, which managed to alienate both players and fans. But Silva has got everyone behind the team again, and their recent flurry of late goals is testament to their conviction.

So Silva insists that the players believe so much already that he does not have to persuade them they can take the game to Arsenal. “I don’t need to need to convince them,” he said. “How I saw my players working every day, I don’t need to convince them of anything.” He knows they need to play their best, but he backs his team to deliver that.

“Of course they know it is important to have the humility to understand what type of team we will play against,” he said. “We need to do almost a perfect game to achieve a result. We need to keep the focus for 95 minutes because in one moment they can decide the match. We need to keep focus every moment, all the set pieces, everything to achieve a good result. But I don’t need to convince them. Because I know how they work.”