Watford 1-2 Stoke City

Joselu's goal was his fourth for Stoke since joining last summer from Hannover

Stoke secured a comfortable win at Watford thanks to goals from Jon Walters and Joselu.

After a bright start from the hosts, Mark Hughes' side dominated possession and Walters turned home Phil Bardsley's right-wing cross.

After Marko Arnautovic's goal was ruled out for offside, Joselu lobbed Heurelho Gomes after his poor clearance.

The Hornets struggled to create chances throughout but Troy Deeney scored a close-range header late on.

The victory moves Stoke up up seventh above Liverpool and Southampton, while Watford remain 14th on 37 points.

Relive the action from Vicarage Road.

Free-flowing Stoke

Much has been made of the change of style in Stoke's play since Mark Hughes took charge and nowhere was that more evident than with the opening goal.

Walters rounded off a superb 13-pass move at the back post in which eight different players touched the ball, which was worked from the edge of their own area.

Walters, who played primarily on the right wing, was a huge outlet for Stoke along with full-back Bardsley

Walters was a constant threat along with overlapping right-back Bardsley, with Ibrahim Afellay also tending to drift over to the right side in his free role as the Potters focused their attacks down that flank.

Without both Xherdan Shaqiri and Bojan Krkic, Hughes' men continued to impress and have now won four of their last six games to move within five points of the top four places.

"I spoke to Jonathan earlier in the week and told him he was playing," said Stoke boss Hughes.

"You could tell from the start that he was focused and ready to make an impact - he's not been playing for the last few weeks but he came in to good effect."

Watford's woes

Despite securing a place in the FA Cup semi-finals last week by winning at Arsenal, Watford will be concerned at their league form so far in 2016.

The Hornets have lost their last three Premier League games and have only two wins from their last 13 matches.

Sitting on 37 points, 12 above the relegation places, their future looks pretty secure for next season, but they will not want their campaign to peter out with the prospect of a semi-final at Wembley on the horizon.

Problems stem from the reliance on the pairing of Deeney and strike partner Odion Ighalo for goals.

Captain Deeney's header was his ninth in the league this season, while Nigerian top scorer Ighalo has 14 - after that, Watford have five players who have scored one league goal. So if the Hornets' main men do not score, they tend not to.

Man of the match - Jon Walters (Stoke)

The Irishman opened the scoring, provided the assist for the second goal and covered the third highest distance of any player on the pitch

What the managers said

Stoke manager Mark Hughes: "It got a little bit frenetic at the end and not the control we had for the most part, but in the end we got the job done. It was a great finish from Joselu as he hasn't had too many opportunities.

"We're just going to see how far we can go. We've got to take games to the opposition like we did today and be confident in our own ability - I sometimes think we don't know how good we are in full flow.

"We're not comfortable with the status quo and we want to keep on driving."

Watford head coach Quique Sanchez Flores: "I think they had more intensity energy, velocity and focus on the match than our team did. We didn't play like a team in the first half, so we have problems.

"We didn't create a lot of chances, but maybe in the last 20 minutes when we played a bit better. We're not happy with the match, we started slow and didn't play how our team usually plays.

"We are not worried about the future of the team in the Premier League but we want to achieve 40 points as soon as possible."

The stats you need to know

• Phil Bardsley's assist was his first in the Premier League since March 2015 and only his fourth ever.

• Watford have kept only two clean sheets in their last 13 Premier League games.

• Jonathan Walters scored and provided an assist in a Premier League game for the first time since December 2014 and for the fifth time overall.

• After failing to score in each of their last six league matches against Watford, the Potters netted two on Saturday.

• Troy Deeney scored in a Premier League game for only the second time in his last 12 top-flight appearances.

What next?

Both teams have a two-week break because of the international games. Watford will return to Emirates Stadium three weeks after knocking out Arsenal out of the FA Cup, while Stoke will look to continue their push for Europe when they host Swansea.