Troy Deeney believes the attention his partnership with Odion Ighalo has received is forcing teams to re-think how they defend against Watford, but warns it cannot last forever.

The duo have scored 15 of the Hornets’ 18 Premier League goals between them. Ighalo netted his tenth of the campaign in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Their union has been duly recognised by the media this season and Deeney feels teams are now setting up differently against the Hornets as a result.

Speaking on Goals on Sunday, he said: “We’re really confident. But I think because it’s getting more publicity the other team have got that little element of doubt in their mind.

“They’re thinking ‘we don’t want to go too tight with these’ and we’re getting a bit more space.

“Now they’re taking a step back because we’re both strong boys. You can’t physically dominate us.

“It’s going well and we’ll enjoy the plaudits but there’s going to be a time when it stops.

“We’re working more on defending from the front – that’s what the gaffer wants us to do - and making sure we’re not being lazy and killing the rest of the team.

“I just know where he’s going to be and vice-versa," said Deeney of Ighalo. "He works hard, we both do. He’s doing well and we’re getting a lot of plaudits.

“But games like yesterday I think the back five deserve a lot of credit.”

Deeney was also quick to deflect praise onto the defensive midfield axis of Ben Watson and Etienne Capoue.

He said: “Ben Watson doesn’t really get too much credit but he does so much work in the middle of the park just breaking up play and keeping the team in a great shape.

“Etienne Capoue has been fantastic as well. It’s quite frustrating actually because somebody of his talent and attributes effectively shouldn’t be at Watford.

“Some of the stuff he does in games actually takes the mick.”

Saturday’s win on Wearside – the Hornets’ third in succession in the Premier League for the first time ever – means Quique Sanchez Flores’ side are seventh, just four points shy of the Champions League places.

A place in Europe would be somewhat fanciful, though, and Deeney insists Watford’s focus remains solely on ensuring they will play Premier League football again next season.

“We are not standing by the cliched 40 points,” said Deeney. “We don't want to get ahead of ourselves.

“No-one has ever gone down with 11 wins so we’ve got to get four more wins. Once we’ve reached that target we’ll set another one and go again.”

Next up for Watford are fixtures against Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.

But Deeney is adamant the Hornets won’t make life easy for four of the Premier League’s more illustrious names.

He said: “We’ve got four tough games coming up. That’s the reason teams stay up in the Premier League – because they get points in this part of the season.

“It’s not about the start of the season, it’s this tricky middle and then when your nerves are jangling towards the end it shows who the real players are.

“We have a tough winter fixture list and everyone will be writing us off in the next four fixtures but we aren't, far from it.”

“I’d like to think that we’re going to do all right over that. Three of the next four at home as well, which is perfect.”