A delighted Gerard Deulofeu praised Watford’s perfect first half performance after he made his first start of the season in a 2-0 defeat of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The Spaniard put in an impressive performance as he helped the Hornets take control with goals from Etienne Capoue and Roberto Pereyra, which were separated by just 58 seconds in the first period.

Having spent the season recovering his fitness and only returning to action in a cameo outing against AFC Bournemouth a fortnight ago, Deulofeu was delighted to be involved with a flowing Watford performance.

“It is a long time and I have suffered with my injury in my foot, so I enjoyed today so much with my team and getting the three points after the defeat to Bournemouth at home,” Deulofeu said.

“It was a really good game, the first half was perfect and we dominated the whole game and know how well we played.

“The second half was a little bit difficult because they pressed much better and put in some dangerous crosses but we kept a good level, kept the clean sheet and the win was very good today.”

Watford’s display could not have been in starker contrast to the one they put in while being thrashed 4-0 by Bournemouth before the international break.

Watford boss Javi Gracia had been quick to highlight the importance of having time to work with his players before the game and Deulofeu felt the win at Molineux was evidence of that work.

He said: “A lot of work has gone in and I said after the last game at home, that can’t happen another time.

“The day after Bournemouth we spoke all together and trained really well. How you train is how you play and today we showed that.”

Wolves started the day with one of the most fearsome defences in the top flight having conceded six goals all season but were at a loss to deal with Watford’s movement.

Deulofeu was key to causing many of the problems suffered by the hosts as a free role up front allowed him to drift across the attacking third.

He was quick to highlight the role played by Watford boss Gracia in getting the best from his side and limiting the impact of Wolves.

“The manager told us the whole week that we have to find the spaces between Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves and that is what we did,” he said.

“We did really well with Roberto [Pereyra] and Will [Hughes] and we were so dangerous. We made two or three chances and scored twice in the first half, so we were effective today.”