FROM the moment they were stuffed 3-0 at home by Brighton on the opening weekend, Watford seemed intent on doing this the hard way.
And so they limp on to the final afternoon. In complete disarray. Away to Arsenal, the club they share a hedge with as their training grounds back on to each other.
Man City raider Raheem Sterling celebrates after completing his first-half double in the easiest of victoriesCredit: AP:Associated Press
Watford are on the brink of relegation after a 4-0 defeat and travel to Arsenal on the final day of the season Credit: AP:Associated Press
Now down in 18th thanks to Aston Villa’s 1-0 win over the Gunners, Watford’s players should spend the next few days shouting through the shrubbery at London Colney, begging Mikel Arteta’s players to throw in the towel on Sunday and concentrate on the FA Cup final.
Watford and Villa are level on 34 points but Dean Smith’s side leapfrogged the Hornets due to goal difference — but it is only one goal.
Losing 6-0 to Manchester City in last season’s Cup final was embarrassing for the Hornets.
But September’s 8-0 defeat at the Etihad and now this four-goal destruction could prove to be even more serious for the club, in terms of how it has affected their goal difference in the Premier League.
When you consider everything Watford have been through — with most of it self-inflicted — it will be a bloody miracle if they stay up.
But they still have a chance to end this extraordinary, dramatic and shambolic campaign with survival.
For a club the size of Watford without a billionaire owner, this is the only realistic aim.
You had to feel sympathy for caretaker-manager Hayden Mullins.
His team were ripped apart by a City side which saw Raheem Sterling score twice to take his Premier League tally to 19 and make it 33 for club and country this season.
Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte also found the target in a game which could have ended in a bigger battering than the one in September. City can be a strange team on the road but here they looked lean and mean and will surely demolish Norwich before preparing for Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Whether Watford join the hopeless Canaries remains to be seen but they must somehow find the organisation, spirit and talent they have shown on too few occasions this season.
Trigger-happy Watford chairman Gino Pozzo has already sacked three managers this term.
Raheem Sterling watches as his penalty was saved by Ben Foster before he turned in the reboundCredit: Getty Images – Getty
It would not even be a surprise if caretaker Mullins was replaced ahead of Sunday’s trip to the Emirates.
Of course, even by Pozzo’s brutal standards, this is unlikely to happen — although many people will not have too much sympathy if the Italian ends with egg on his face and the team down in the Championship.
When Nigel Pearson took over in December, Watford were seven points adrift of safety and the latest casualty at Vicarage Road said he would be happy if they were still in with a chance of survival on the final day.
We are now at that point.
But Friday’s 3-1 defeat at West Ham — the result which got Pearson the bullet — and defeat in this completely one-sided match will have given the team’s belief a real shredding.
It is incredible when you remember Sterling had gone 12 games without a goal before scoring against Arsenal in the first game of Project Restart.
But he showed he has rediscovered his confidence by controlling a poor pass into the area from Kyle Walker.
Sterling took a quick touch before belting the ball past Ben Foster.
Will Hughes was at fault for the opening goal and he then clipped Sterling in the area for a penalty.
Sterling’s spot-kick was superbly saved by Foster but the ball fell perfectly for the England international, who booted it into the roof of the net. Foster continued to deliver some outstanding saves and whatever happens, he will be playing in the Premier League next season.
Phil Foden is on hand for a simple third goal for Man City, just reward for his outstanding performanceCredit: EPA
But for City’s third goal, even when he kept out a strike from Sterling, Foden was well placed to volley in.
And Foster did not stand a chance when Laporte headed the fourth from Kevin De Bruyne’s free-kick.
At the end, the dejected Watford players trudged off for the debrief from their latest manager, and the Amazon cameras — despite surely getting good content from Spurs for their upcoming series — would have loved being here this season.
We thought Watford had given us enough to talk about when Pearson succeeded Quique Sanchez Flores in December and his team ended Liverpool’s hopes of a record 19-game winning run in league with a stunning 3-0 win in February.
Yet it was at the beginning of Project Restart that you had real fears for them.
They were among the first to claim football was rushing the restart but, admirably, opened the doors of their stadium to the hospital next door.
The Hornets then had three staff test positive for the virus, including Adrian Mariappa, while Troy Deeney and two other team-mates initially stayed away from training due to fears of the virus.
Two further first-team players were also ordered to stay at home as their partners tested positive for Covid-19.
Incredibly, Andre Gray, Nathaniel Chalobah and Domingos Quina were dropped after breaking lockdown rules by attending a party.
Aymeric Laporte enjoys making it 4-0 as City totally outplayed WatfordCredit: AP:Associated Press
Yet after a couple of wins and with everything appearing rosy, Pozzo sacked Pearson.
So now Mullins, who was also caretaker for two games before Pearson was appointed, will take charge of his fourth ever match — against Arsenal.
It is one of the biggest in Watford’s history. And when you look at this bonkers campaign, we are sure to get one more incredible twist.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
