Ahead of their visit to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, Watford languished at the very foot of the Premier League table, winless from their opening eight matches and already four points adrift of safety. As such, the prospect of facing last season's Champions League finalists was hardly an attractive one for the Hornets and their supporters, a clear opportunity for their sorry predicament to be exacerbated.

But Spurs had been in a rut of their own — conceding 10 goals in two defeats to Bayern Münich and Brighton & Hove Albion prior to the recent international break — while Watford took encouragement from their first clean sheet in over half a year against Sheffield United in the previous round of fixtures. The interplay between optimism and pessimism would play its part in the match that ensued between the two.

With just five minutes on the clock at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a sweeping, incisive move from Watford was rounded off calmly by midfielder Abdoulaye Doucouré. In a performance typical of head coach Quique Sánchez Flores, the Hornets then weathered storm after storm from their hosts, but were ultimately breached by a controversial 86th-minute equaliser from Dele Alli.

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Despite seeing a crucial victory slip from their grasp, Sánchez Flores told journalists after the game that he remains proud of the display his players were able to produce and asserted that, before kick-off, the prospect of securing any points at all was desirable enough.

“Maybe we were realistic before the match, thinking to draw is a good result," he said. "Now we need to create a balance between the feelings about nearly winning and drawing. It is not too bad but we can improve. I know our players believe in their work.”

Technological grievances

It's no exaggeration to say victory would have been invaluable to Watford. Three points instead of one would have halved the gap to 17th and significantly reduced the extent of their isolation at the bottom of the table. The Hornets were less than ten minutes of resilience away before Alli's late goal, but can look back on two moments which dictated the course of the match in a manner out of their control.

In the first half, forward Gerard Deulofeu appeared to be felled by Jan Vertonghen in the box, but referee Chris Kavanagh was unmoved. The VAR undertook a review yet, probably due to the 'clear and obvious' applied to the justification of its intervention, the original decision was not overturned.

Tottenham's equaliser did little to cool the controversy as Watford defender Christian Kabasele felt he had been shoved by Harry Kane as the pair jostled for a lobbed pass in the build-up. Then, after miscommunication between Ben Foster and Kiko Femenía, Alli was able to control the ball and poke it home for Spurs.

Replays, though strangely subjective, indicated the 23-year old may have used his arm to his advantage, and the increasingly enforced handball law indicates any such action, intentional or not, will be deemed a breach of the rules of the game. But again, Kavanagh's call to award the goal was not overruled — and further confusion was caused when the stadium's screens read 'no goal' after the referee had pointed to the centre circle for Watford to restart play.

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“It’s a foul on Kabasele, he pushed him," Sánchez Flores said. "That’s my opinion, just my opinion. It’s also a penalty on Deulofeu. It’s very clear, very easy to see.”

VAR has been one of football's most ever-present and often exhaustive debates since its introduction to the Premier League, a consequence of the contentious, indefinite and somewhat obscure rules which the International Football Association Board have established to govern its use. The details have been explained extensively, but to little avail.

Echoing the views of Watford as a collective, and of many other corners of Premier League fandom, Sánchez Flores admitted he is not entirely sure of the methodology or purpose of VAR when such ambiguity exists within it.

“It’s very weird. There are so many interpretations. I don’t know, I have no idea. I don’t know the way they work. It is supposed to be something objective.”

A promising performance

Resentment aside, Watford can certainly feel spirited after their showing in north London, and have added another building block to the foundations which have gradually — though, admittedly, somewhat tentatively — been laid by Sánchez Flores since his return at the beginning of September.

Tottenham's recent form will do little to degrade Watford's perception of the result they secured — they had lost nine consecutive matches on Spurs soil, without victory since 1985, and one glance at the sheer quality within the home ranks on Saturday suggested their chances of bucking the trend were slim.

But Sánchez Flores anticipated the challenge, studied the opponents extensively and ultimately knew what to expect from opposite number Mauricio Pochettino. His homework and its application across the international break paid dividends on the pitch in the form of defensive resilience and a pleasing degree of creative zeal.

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“It’s very difficult to play against this team," the 54-year old said. "The stadium is tough and this is a tough team, but we didn’t concede the match. I saw many teams playing Tottenham: Newcastle United and Southampton. Newcastle won here and we played much better than them, but just drew.

“We had very clear chances, a little bit less than them but we played the match we expected. Conceding the goal we did was a little bit hard but this was possible in the position we were in.”

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