Danny Rose felt Watford deserved a point from their defeat away at Arsenal yesterday, but believes there were positives to take from the game into the international break.

In a post-match club interview, the full back, who made his 200th Premier League appearance in the match, said that there was a foundation on which to build ahead of a difficult-looking run of fixtures.

Following the weekend away from league football, the Hornets will face Manchester United, Leicester City, Chelsea and Manchester City one after another and the defender feels they have now laid a good base to build upon before those matches.

“I felt as if we were comfortable, right in there,” said Rose.

“We kept going right until the end, even with 10 men, and a point may have been fair. But that’s where we’re at now, and I hope we can capitalise on such a good defensive display.

“It is very disappointing when you defend so well and concede a goal like we did, but there’s not much we can do now except dust ourselves off.

“We have a foundation, a platform to build on defensively and if we keep playing like that we’ll pick up the points along the way.”

Included in those positives were a solid first start for centre back Nicolas Nkoulou and a penalty save from Ben Foster.

Rose believes his two teammates contributed to the club's best defensive display so far this season.

“I felt very comfortable," he continued. "He [Nkoulou] was always talking. He was brilliant and what a debut to make, away at Arsenal, where we probably produced our best defensive performance even though we’ve been beaten. Congratulations to Nicolas on a positive full debut.

“Ben’s a freak of nature! He’s 38 and from today alone you can see he’s got another two, three, four years left at this level. I think that says a lot about him as a professional, and it’s a real privilege being able to play in front of him. He was definitely our man of the match today and long may it continue.”