“That was a game we could have won but at the moment things are not happening for us. It will not affect our confidence because we know we are capable of turning things around, and we will.”I am frustrated and very disappointed with the results but the performances, in my opinion, have been good enough – some great, some OK and a couple of bad ones But that is understandable We have a new team and it is still early in the season. After four months I can’t expect to be in charge of a fantastic team already.”I know expectations are really high and unless we win 3-0 and are almost perfect nobody is going to be happy with us. We have played sides who made a lot of mistakes and got away with it, yet we don’t get away with mistakes. It’s probably because God knows we are much better and wants to teach us a lesson,” he smiled.

“And the lesson is that we have got to be perfect if we want to get results. In the meantime, our football and my principles remain the same.”Those principles, buttressed by considerable skill, carried Vialli through a glittering playing career with Cremonese, Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea before he became arguably the most successful manager in Stamford Bridge history by winning five trophies in less than two full seasons. Harsh dismissal in September last year has not persuaded Vialli to unburden himself subsequently about his treatment, though he does refer sardonically to the club’s managing director, Colin Hutchinson, as “Chelsea’s Mr Nice Guy” after they clashed when Winston Bogarde was bought without the manager’s knowledge or wish.Rumours of a return to Sampdoria having been dismissed as nonsense, Vialli is seriously embarked on turning Watford round and, in pursuit of instilling his beliefs and demands, he had every member of the squad in his office last Thursday for one-on-one briefings. Already, much has changed from the Graham Taylor days of getting the ball forward quickly, as Cox noted: “This manager is trying to get the ball down and pass it. He has been here four months, so we should have taken everything on board by now. It’s about time we all got firing, got some clean sheets and started winning some games.”In an extremely tight division, Watford remain in close enough touch with the leaders for a good run to put them in contention “No team really stand out,” said Vialli.

“Therefore it is going to be tight, probably till the end, and that is a good thing for us because we still have time to make up for not starting as well as we hoped.” While agreeing a string of wins could put them among the front runners by the turn of the year, Vialli warned: “It is easier to say that than do it, so it is about time we stopped talking and started showing what we are capable of, stopped giving other teams the chance to say to us ‘Thanks for being Father Christmas’.”Vialli insists enough money has been made available to cover his plans “There is enough to enable us to compete with the others. As long as you have targets and the money available is enough to reach those targets, which is the case at Watford, you can be happy. Obviously with this sort of money we couldn’t try to win the Premiership. But there is enough for our needs, especially when I look at other clubs that have even less.

What matters to me are things like good training facilities, good relationships with directors, the players and the club. I have all of that here, and that’s why I am very happy.” A win at Gillingham today and Vialli, the keepie-uppie king, would be even happier.. A week in the life of Ars? Wenger is never dull. The north London derby against Tottenham yesterday, the Champions’ League trip to the Spanish league leaders Deportivo La Coru?n Wednesday, and then the small matter of Manchester United’s visit next Sunday. No wonder the Arsenal manager compares the sequence to a game of Russian roulette

A week in the life of Ars? Wenger is never dull. No one is suggesting that the sack is imminent, but failure to regain the Premiership or, worse still, to make serious progress in the latter stages of Europe, could persuade Wenger that the time has come to move on to pastures new.”You don’t think,” he says of the ever-congested fixture list. “It’s like Russian roulette: you just get through one round, then move on to the next, then the next, and so on.” How many more rounds, though, is Wenger prepared to go as manager of Arsenal? His continued refusal to sign an extension to his contract (which runs out in the summer) can only really mean one of two things: either he has been offered a job elsewhere or his employers do not wish to retain his services Somehow, the latter option does not seem likely.