Visitors got level with eight minutes of time left but Barcelona loanee Gerard Deulofeu helped seal all three points for Javi Gracia
NOT many people expected Antonio Conte to be at Chelsea next season anyway.
But as the roof caved in on his bullet-ridden champions in a frenetic final ten minutes at Vicarage Road, it felt as of the end was nigh.
Conte had been demanding a vote of confidence from Roman Abramovich before this thrashing – but he is unlikely to get one after this.
The Blues were on the back foot ever since a personal horror show from £40million flop Tiemoue Bakayoko which saw him sent off after just 30 minutes.
But after Eden Hazard had cancelled out Troy Deeney’s opener, Chelsea were blitzed by three late goals from Daryl Janmaat, Gerard Deulofeu and Roberto Pererya as they were trounced by a team who previously couldn’t buy a win.
This is an ill-tempered and fractious Chelsea, reflecting the recent mood of their manager. Much more of this and his tenure will be swiftly cut short.
But first to the scene-setting Bakayoko.
When referee Mike Dean sent him off, his second yellow card was actually a little harsh.
But you could see what Dean was getting at – he was, in effect, dismissing the Chelsea midfielder because his first touch had been so bad it was endangering the safety of opponents.
Bakayoko produced a more slapstick half-hour than anything Tony Hancock ever produced.
In fact, before his sending-off on 30 minutes, the poor wretch was responsible for one of the worst individual performances ever seen in the Premier League.
If this is what you get for £40m these days, then Conte has been quite correct to moan long and hard about Chelsea’s recruitment policy.
For a long stretch Chelsea were better off with ten men – but ulyimately their lack of manpower caught up with them.
Having teed up Richarlison for a clear run on the Chelsea goal, Bakayoko was sent off for two fouls on that same player in the space of five minutes.
As he trudged off, aiming a melancholy round of applause at the travelling fans, the Chelsea faithful sang ‘you’re f***ing s**t’.
It is not certain they were aiming the chant at their own man but it seemed likely.
He’s already been described as ‘Bakayoko Oh No’ but this was no laughing matter.
Sometimes it seems hard to feel genuine sympathy for these top-flight multi-millionaires but it would have taken a cold heart not to feel for Bakayoko last night.
A short-handed Chelsea were soon behind – but this wasn’t all about one man’s personal nightmare.
This Chelsea team has won just twice in ten matches, their Champions League place for next season in jeopardy, and a manager who’d probably like a decent pay-off.
For Watford this was only a second win in 13 and a timely one as they had been sliding towards a relegation scrap.
In his first programme notes as Watford’s tenth manager in five and a half years, Javi Gracia described his new club as being ‘like a family’.
Yep, the sort of family which disowns key members every six months and ends up swearing at one another on the Jeremy Kyle Show.
Yet Conte’s own job security is scarcely any better. Before this match, he’d become the first manager in living memory to actively demand a ‘dreaded vote of confidence’ from his owner.
Having whinged about his lack of striking options, and then landed a battle-hardened Premier League centre forward in Olivier Giroud, Conte naturally left the big Frenchman on the bench.
After just two wins in their previous nine matches, Conte restored his turbulent centre-back David Luiz for a first Premier League start since October.
Some of old Sideshow Bob’s defensive eccentricity had been so pronounced that he was seriously linked with Arsenal during the January window, yet here he was back in Conte’s team.
The Brazilian was soon being tormented by Deulofeu, who’d swapped Las Ramblas in Barcelona for the Harlequin Centre in Watford, and drilled one into the side-netting early on.
Deeney then screwed a shot wide when unmarked at the back stick from a corner.
But Chelsea soon showed they were also capable of wasting openings as Willian Row-Zedded an effort.
None of this was as shoddy though as the passing of Bakayoko, whose stream of misplaced passes was sparking dissent from the Chelsea faithful long before his dismissal.
Richarlison was the victim of Bakayoko’s two yellow-card challenges – the first one clumsy, the second courtesy of a first touch which made the second a lunging tackle.
It took 12 minutes for Watford to capitalise on their extra man. Luiz got in a muddle and Deulofeu scampered round the back of Gary Cahill, Thibaut Courtois dashing out of his goal to clip the winger’s left foot and leave him sprawled on the deck.
Deeney, who always scores penalties and rarely celebrates them modestly, stayed true to form.
Deulofeu and Richarlison both curled efforts narrowly wide and Abdoulaye Doucoure forced Courtois into a flying save after a thunderous run and shot.
But Giroud’s arrival as a replacement for the injured Pedro gave Chelsea more of a focal point and Cesc Fabregas forced one decent save from Orestis Karnezis before Hazard curled home a beauty from 20 yards, eight minutes from time.
Yet Janmaat cut in from the right and played a one-two with Roberto Pererya before firing Watford back in front.
Then Deulofeu scored a worldie of a solo effort after picking up the ball on the right wing inside his own half.
Long before Pererya lashed in the fourth after a Doucoure pass, Chelsea’s fans had been looking forward to their next Champions League clash by singing ‘Barcelona we’re coming for you!’
And for all the world, when Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea, he didn’t do so in the expectation that the club’s supporters would be singing that with their tongues so firmly in their cheeks.
