Watford 0
Crystal Palace 1
Cabaye 71’ (pen)
At the fourth time of asking, fortress Vicarage Road was finally breached.
Quique Sanchez Flores’s band of strangers have been strangely resilient. Watford were the last Premier League team to concede on home soil. But when they did, Yohan Cabaye sealed victory for Crystal Palace.
Away-day specialists had a third win on the road. Defensive misers had the rare taste of defeat. Only Manchester City had beaten Watford before Cabaye’s penalty. The hosts had performed with remarkable consistency and unity for a club where change, unlike players or coaches, is a constant.
Sanchez Flores, whose eclectic CV features spells in charge of Al Ahli and Al Ain, is their fifth manager in a year.
Watford recruited 15 players during the summer, buying and selling them as a hyperactive trader would shares, just as they have exchanged the Championship for the middle of the Premier League.
Theirs has been a smooth start, given the overhaul in personnel. That is a testament to the skills that served Sanchez Flores well at Valencia and Atletico Madrid.
They make comparatively few mistakes in the transfer market, but one error on the pitch cost them dearly. The overworked right-back Allan Nyom slid in on Wilfried Zaha when he should have retained his footing. Cabaye, Palace’s record signing, converted the spot kick.
It was a reward for manager Alan Pardew’s tinkering. Palace’s assortment of adaptable, electric wingers gives him enviable attacking options.
Pardew initially opted for a midfield diamond, with Cabaye shifted forward to operate as a No 10, and twin forwards, albeit ones running wider. He changed in the second half, bringing Cabaye deeper, thrusting Jason Puncheon further forward and using Dwight Gayle as a lone striker.
Gayle hit the woodwork, albeit when Craig Cathcart’s attempted clearance struck him after Bakary Sako placed the defender in a difficult position with an inviting cross. Sako was promptly substituted, but his replacement, Zaha, fashioned the breakthrough.
“We have problems stopping the counter-attack,” Sanchez Flores said.
Palace’s pace equips them to play away from home, and it was a wise move to target the flanks. Their threat – and Heurelho Gomes also made a brilliant, point-blank save to deny Brede Hangeland when he met Cabaye’s free kick – only came when they managed to bypass Watford’s central midfield pairing of Ben Watson and Etienne Capoue.
They shielded the centre-backs with such efficiency it was easy to see why West Bromwich Albion, Southampton and Swansea City had failed to score at Vicarage Road.
Watford’s problem is that goals have been in short supply at both ends. They have failed to score in three of their four home league games.
“We have difficulties to get attempts (at goal),” their manager said.
Like Palace, they struck the woodwork. Jose Manuel Jurado played in Sanchez Flores’s Uefa Cup-winning Atletico team, and he hit the bar with a wonderfully whipped free kick, while Troy Deeney was unable to convert the rebound. A first Premier League goal continues to elude the Watford captain.
Only West Brom have scored fewer than Watford, and the man who delivered their first top-flight goal for eight years, Miguel Layun, was sent out to Porto on loan at the end of the transfer window.
It leaves them looking reliant on Odion Ighalo, the only scorer left at the club.
Unless others come to his aid, Watford’s games will continue to be low-scoring affairs.
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