Claudio Ranieri was a satisfied man on Saturday evening, despite Watford's 3-1 defeat to Manchester City.

The Hornets were unable to prevent their visitors from carving them open on three occasions before Cucho Hernandez found a second half consolation strike.

After the match the head coach told Sky Sports he was pleased with his side's spirit and that he would have taken their points tally from their recent tricky period, had it been offered to him beforehand.

"If somebody some time ago told me against Man City, Chelsea and Man United, you will get three points, I would sign immediately," said Ranieri. "We had three fantastic performances, I'm satisfied.

"I watched a good spirit. When we were down 3-0, we never gave up, we reacted and we scored. Yes we conceded a lot of counter attacks but I saw a lot of spirit together and commitment, I’m satisfied.

"Our premier league starts now, we have to get some points."

At half time, Ranieri brought on Juraj Kucka as well as goalscorer Hernandez, as he did not want to wait to make changes while his side were losing.

He was pleased with how his team adapted to the alterartions.

"I wanted to give some more opportunities to [Joshua] King, so I put Joao Pedro behind him to cover Rodri and with the two wingers to try to do something more," he said. "I know I left them more chances.

"I didn’t like to wait and continue to lose without having the chance to do something more. I pefer to continue to play our football.

"Today we were maybe a little tired, we didn’t make combinations as well as we did against Chelsea, but it’s okay."

Next up for Watford it's Brentford away and Ranieri believes he has seen enough from his team to suggest they will stay up this season.

"I know now there’s a very good battle between six or seven teams for the battle to stay together in the Premier League," he said.

"I'm very confident. Of course we made mistakes and we have to work to improve these mistakes."