The bustling Italian striker may have only been on the pitch for nine minutes, but Stefano Okaka gave Watford "more heart" in the eyes of head coach Marco Silva, with a nod to perhaps patching things up with his previously outcast striker.

A very public dispute had been waged between the pair earlier in the week, with Okaka seemingly unaware of why he had been outed from the Watford squad for more than two months, while Silva said "everyone at the club" knew what had led to his absence.

But, more through necessity than choice, the 28-year-old was named on the bench for Watford's 3-2 defeat at Everton yesterday, and came on in injury time before the Hornets earned themselves a 100th-minute penalty, only for Tom Cleverley to plant it wide of the post.

After the game, Silva was unprompted when mentioning the forward and praising his impact, in what appeared a calculated attempt to diffuse the situation between them - even though Okaka had barely touched the ball during his nine minutes on the pitch.

He said: "We would like to perform again and I’d like to talk even after the 3-2 we believe when you change and put Okaka on, you start to play more with the heart and with our style of play.

"We had a fantastic chance to make it 3-3 but everything happened this afternoon and in a bad way for us after it went 2-1. We need to understand why, and we know we need to work on it."