Watford's forwards are more than capable of scoring goals again, insists head coach Quique Sanchez Flores, ahead of their Premier League clash with Chelsea.

The Hornets have only scored five goals in the league this season, and just once in the last five matches, while injuries have stifled their options up front, with captain Troy Deeney missing since August, Danny Welbeck ruled out for a "long time" and Ismaila Sarr also currently available.

Nevertheless, Sanchez Flores believes the players he has showed last season that they are capable of producing the attacking threat Watford need.

"We need to take the good news and the good positive things for the bad moments we are in now," said the head coach. 

"For example, with Gray what we can think about Gray is that the last year he was important for the team, so right now if we are not talking about Sarr, he didn't stay here the last year, he wasn't here, Welbeck as well, so we have the same strikers as last year, except Deeney.

"We have Gray, we have Deulofeu, we have Pereyra, so I prefer not to complain, not to create excuses and all this kind of things. The last year the team had four strikers, now we have three [who are] the same, so we need to just work. It's the only thing we need to try, no excuses about the players or anything. If they did well the last season, we have reasons to think this season they can recuperate the good performances."

Although in his opinion he has the right players, Sanchez Flores claims things are "mentally tough" at the moment and said he is trying not to burden his players with too much pressure and responsibility. 

The head coach reiterated his need for patience as he tries to take time to build something stable to build on.

"It's tough. More mentally than maybe other things because you have a lot of things in your brain," he said.

"You have a lot of ideas, you have a lot of thoughts, but you need to spend a lot of time trying to help the players mentally, thinking more on their mood.

"You need to spend a lot of time with this and you need to, little by little, take things and put in techniques, tactics and everything, but sometimes you can't put everything in the basket right now because they're not able to assume a lot of responsibilities.

"The big responsibilities they need to assume, but you can't give them a lot, or more than they can hold. It's impossible. So that's why it's a little bit - you need to use experience little by little.

"I would love the fans and everyone can feel an amazing change in two weeks, but it's not me. I am working for something more stable, something more of a base, something bigger and on the way to find this, we are going to lose some matches.

"We are trying to prepare a good team - a good scenario where we are able to win and the fans can feel proud of us. These are both things we need."