{"id":320,"date":"2018-02-05T13:13:47","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T12:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/?p=320"},"modified":"2018-02-05T13:13:47","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T12:13:47","slug":"javi-gracia-faces-a-chelsea-visit-threatening-new-torment-for-watford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/?p=320","title":{"rendered":"Javi Gracia faces a Chelsea visit threatening new torment for Watford"},"content":{"rendered":"

The reunion with Chelsea on Monday will probably prompt some short\u2011term nostalgia at Watford. The last time they met, after all, represented \u2013 at least for an hour \u2013 probably the apogee of the club\u2019s\u00a0Premier League<\/a>\u00a0project, and for all the drama of their league season so far it is possible to pick out a single moment within this single match at which they were at their brightest and best and after which life has never quite been the same.<\/p>\n

At Stamford Bridge in October Watford led 2-1<\/a>, missed a ludicrously straightforward chance to lead 3-1 and generally outplayed their hosts for much of the game. They were a team bursting with attacking threat in the early days of Marco Silva\u2019s leadership, a more convincing and certainly more compelling side than those produced in the club\u2019s two preceding top-flight seasons by Quique S\u00e1nchez Flores and Walter Mazzarri.<\/p>\n

But with hindsight the move in the 54th minute in which they sliced\u00a0Chelsea<\/a>apart before Richarlison inexplicably put a header wide from six yards seems like a watershed in their season. Two days later Everton sacked Ronald Koeman, started their courtship of Silva, and the fragile foundations that the Portuguese coach had been building began to crumble.<\/p>\n