Watford vs Chelsea LIVE: Premier League result, final score and reaction tonight

Yet again, Chelsea were far from perfect. But at a bitterly cold Vicarage Road, in the face of bold Watford resistance and a struggling sense of self, they emerged battered, bruised, and ultimately victorious by two goals to one on a night that went on for longer than it should have.

Mason Mount had given Chelsea the lead, then provided the winner as Hakim Ziyech bagged his first goal of the Premier League season after Emmanuel Dennis’ had equalised at the end of the first half with his sixth. But those details, indeed the match itself, were almost rendered irrelevant after a fan suffered a cardiac arrest in the stands.

Read the full report from Vithushan Ehantharajah, here:

Chelsea’s Mason Mount, speaking to Amazon Prime:

“It wasn’t our best performance tonight, by far. We came in from the break and said, ‘We hadn’t started yet, we hadn’t got going’. But these are the games you grind out and get the three points. It was a tough one, there were tackles flying in and it’s a tough place to come to get three points and play good football because they made it difficult. So we’re buzzing to get the win.

“We never stop fighting - we never stop going until the final whistle. The three points is big for us after the last game.”

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel says his team “stole” the three points at Vicarage Road and was very critical of his side’s performance when speaking to Amazon Prime.

"That’s not us,” he said. “We were absolutely not ready today for this match. I missed maybe to find the right approach to make my team ready. We had the break due to very sad circumstances – hopefully the person is better. Even this break after the first 11 minutes did not change our approach. We did not cope with the pressure, with the first ball, second ball.

“We had a lot of changes but too many faults. It did not get better. The only thing we could do was hang in there and focus on the easy things. It was a lucky win.

"Havertz was very strong today. I felt he was the one player reaching his level today. We missed some players. We had some players overloaded. We stole three points. We don’t have to talk around it. For the first time it feels like a lucky win."

Chelsea stay top of the Premier League but they were pushed to the end by Watford, who remain 17 in the table. There wasn’t much to separate the teams by the end.

But that’s the sort of wins you need to grind out if you want to be champions. They stay a point ahead of Manchester City and two of Liverpool - all three teams won tonight.

There was late drama as Femenia’s shot from the edge was deflected out for a corner! Bachmann goes up but Rudiger met the cross with an important header, and there’s the full-time whistle!

It wasn’t pretty from Chelsea but they ground that one out.

90+4 mins: Rose’s corner is cleared at the front post by Mount before Loftus-Cheek draws a foul from Ekong as he looked to shield to ball.

Chelsea are almost there.

90+3 mins: Kucka rattles a fierce drive straight down the throat of Mendy! The Chelsea goalkeeper palms the ball over the bar for another corner.

90+1 mins: Watford work it nicely in the right corner but Chelsea have lots of men back to block the route into the box. Femenia’s cross is cleared for a corner by Alonso but Lukaku rises highest to head clear. It only goes as far as Dennis on the edge of the box and he is caught late by Pulisic to earn Watford a free kick.

90 mins: There will be SIX minutes of added time at Vicarage Road, and that draws a late burst of encouragement from the Watford fans.

88 mins: Block! Ngakia cuts it back to King in the box and with his back to goal, he lays it off to Kucka. He shoots at goal but it’s blocked out for a corner by Ziyech. Thiago clears the Watford corner.