Statistics don’t always tell the whole story, but Angelo Ogbonna’s numbers in the 2-1 win over Sunderland confirmed what was seen with the naked eye.

The Italian defender won 100% of his tackles 75% of his duels, made seven clearances, three interceptions and threw in a 96% pass completion rate for good measure.

Quite the home debut for the summer signing after an impressive first Watford appearance in the cup at Manchester City.

“Yeah he has made an excellent introduction,” smiled Tom Cleverley.

“He’s been fantastic and exactly what we need.

“When I said we were sort of missing some Italian-style defending and being focussed, and weren’t valuing defensive actions, he has given us exactly what we needed.

“He has come in at a great time and we need to guide him through this week now.

“Someone who’s not played much or had a pre-season, to ask them to play four games in 10 days means we’re going to have to look after him.

“I’m thrilled with his performance and what he brings to the squad.”

In the second half, Watford fans found themselves watching Ryan Porteous playing as right wing-back.

Cleverley explained the changes he made after the game.

“Festy was doing well for us but he said at half-time he was absolutely spent and he was on a booking,” said the Watford boss.

“His issue is he’s not played much football at all this season, and I could see his legs had gone after about 35 minutes.

“He said at half time he’d got about 10 or 15 more left in the tank.

“Ryan Andrews wasn’t available today and I knew Yasser Larouci was in a similar position where he looked tired.

“I couldn’t put Ken Sema at right wing-back because Yasser needed to also be changed, so putting Porteous there was our only option today.”

With two more games to come this week, fans are likely to see more changes both in the starting XI and during games.

“I’ve made a big emphasis on that we will need all 20 or 21 players in the squad this week,” Cleverley said.

“We used 16 today, and we have to because these weeks where nine points are available are absolutely pivotal.

“It’s a huge week in terms of which direction our season takes.”