Watford vs West Brom: Javi Gracia off to great start

There were a few raised eyebrows when the Pozzo family ditched Marco Silva just a few weeks after rejecting £10m of compensation from Everton.

But they are arguably the best in the business when it comes to appointing head coaches, and Javi Gracia has had an impressive start to his reign.

Seven points from his first four league games has lifted the Hornets into the top half on 33 points, and even though they’re not out of the woods yet, they look far more likely to stay up than many others.

The stand-out result under Gracia was the 4-1 battering of Chelsea at Vicarage Road, but last weekend’s 1-0 home win over Everton was just an encouraging.

Gracia made two substitutions in the second half that swung the game in their favour and so far the manager who made his name in the Spanish second tier has got all the big decisions right.

Watford’s talisman, Troy Deeney, looks rejuvenated under the new boss, and he’s not the only one.

Defender Adrian Mariappa is one of the players who has been reinstated into the line-up under Gracia.

“I have really enjoyed working with him,” Mariappa said.

“He is very enthusiastic about football and always has a smile on his face and I think that rubs off on players. I think you can see from the performances it has worked so far.

“He has had a positive impact on our performances and results as well. He and his staff are working very hard day in day out to get us results.”

Gracia came with a reputation for setting his teams up with a disciplined and defensive approach.

It’s what made his Malaga team brilliantly adept at grinding out points against the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

When he arrived, Watford were in the midst of an injury crisis and had one win in 11, but he brought them back to basics and has kept two clean sheets in his four games so far.

The fact he’s won both his home games should worry Albion. And the fact he’s turned form around with so many key players injured makes it even more impressive.

Watford have 10 players out at the moment, the second-highest number in the league. Barcelona loanee Gerard Deulofeu is the latest to be sidelined.

“It is not ideal for any manager,” said Mariappa. “You do not want that many players out injured but he has dealt well with it and we are getting a few players back to boost the squad.

“He came in and the game against Stoke you could see our structure was very good and we got a clean sheet which was a massive positive at the time.

“That is what we really needed going forward. He demands we defend and attack as a team. It might look like we are being more defensive but we scored four goals against Chelsea.”