SARGENT SPARKS A MAJOR VICTORY
Josh too bright for dim Hornets to leave Ranieri firmly on brink
JOSH SARGENT turned the lights out on yet another Watford head coach to leave Claudio Ranieri on the brink.
American international Sargent’s second-half goals lifted Norwich out of the drop zone for the first time in 52 top-flight games.
And as Watford dropped into the bottom three for the first time this season, the writing was not just on the wall for Ranieri – it was written in the plumes of smoke from Sky Sports’ pre-match pyrotechnic show.
When the floodlights at Vicarage Road suffered spasms of failure after an hour and the match resumed after an 11-minute delay, and reduced lux capacity, it felt like an accurate commentary on Ranieri’s 14-match reign.
Sargent’s two goals, his first in the Premier League, could not camouflage a Friday night dog’s dinner where quality was endangered species. Ranieri’s place in English football’s pantheon is secure after Leicester’s title miracle in 2016.
But the poverty of technique and haphazard execution of his team demonstrated perfectly why the Hornets, tapdancing on the trapdoor that gave way beneath them 18 months ago, are now likely to go down again.
Norwich are not much better, but for Sargent and goalkeeper Angus Gunn this was a memorable excursion.
In his three previous Premier League appearances, for Southampton and the Canaries, Gunn had conceded 17 goals. Watford were so poor he was never in danger of adding significantly to that sorry aggregate.
A mere seven points from a possible 36 would have been enough for Ranieri’s predecessors to walk the plank under the Pozzo regime.
And despite nine defeats in his first 12 league games, the Tinkerman’s conviction that Watford have enough quality to beat the drop remains unbowed.
In the absence of a clean sheet in 20 games – the only club in all four divisions without a shut-out – Ranieri’s optimism may have been misan placed. In their first home game since the fifth anniversary of Watford godfather Graham Taylor’s sudden death, Ranieri had demanded a fitting performance to honour the former England manager’s memory.
Rocket man Sir Elton John, the chairman with whom Taylor took the club on a magic carpet ride through the divisions to Europe and the FA Cup final, said: “He taught all of us so much.
“He taught us to be humble, to be hard-working, to be honest and it had an enormous impact on my life. What he’s done for this football club can never be repaid.” Taylor would have hated this dross.
Proverbial six-pointers require cool heads, clarity of purpose and controlled aggression. Watford’s scattergun passing and raging anxiety showed none of those qualities.
Norwich were not vastly superior, and even their breakthrough six minutes after the break owed more to Watford’s incompetence than finesse.
Teemu Pukki barged complacent Hornets defender Samir off the ball by the deadball line and Sargent managed to divert it over the line via the underside of the bar.
It was his first Premier League goal and the Canaries probably deserved it for being marginally less hopeless.
And shortly after the delay for bad light, Sargent rose handsomely to head Milot Rashica’s cross beyond Daniel Bachmann.
Juraj Kucka’s hapless own goal, early in the 15 minutes of added time, rubbed salt in Watford’s wounds.