Amid a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon in the North East on Saturday, Watford looked remarkably comfortable in defending one of Newcastle's strongest assets - their goalscoring exploits from corners.

Three of the Magpies' 11 goals have come from flag kicks but they never looked in danger of adding to that tally against the Hornets, who executed their defensive blueprint to perfection.

But there's a more obvious answer to why their defending has improved, which Marco Silva drew on when congratulated for their performance after the game.

"Newcastle are strong from set-pieces, they have scored plenty from them," he said. "We prepared well and kept focused. Changing the formation you have another central defender, which helps with defending set-pieces.

"Normally you have a lot of short players - Tom Cleverley, Will Hughes - but having another centre-back gives you more height. We work on it every week, and against Newcastle we were very good."