Heurelho Gomes knows Watford need to keep their foot on the gas



The Hornets secured their seventh victory of the Barclays Premier League season - and their third on the trot - with Saturday's 1-0 win at Sunderland, and have now amassed 25 points from their opening 16 fixtures to give themselves every chance of staying in the top flight.

However, as they prepare for a run of games which sees them pitched into battle with Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City around the turn of the year, Gomes is adamant they cannot relax.

"The target is to finish as high as we can in the table as it's not finished yet," the goalkeeper told Hornets Player

"I know the Premier League is a tough league and you can't sleep in any games.

"Of course it's a tough period coming up, but we're going to go in with big confidence and we're going to play with our heart like we are doing until now, and this is the most important thing.

"We need to focus on this period and recover as maximum as we can, and now we can start to think about the Liverpool game."

Quique Sanchez Flores' men will head into next Sunday's showdown with Liverpool at Vicarage Road brimming with confidence after launching an early blitz at the Stadium of Light and then defending their lead tenaciously.

They went ahead inside four minutes when striker Odion Ighalo and defender Sebastian Coates slid in to meet Allan Nyom's near-post cross, with replays suggesting Coates might have got the final touch as the ball went into the net.

A second-half fightback proved insufficient for Sunderland to rescue a point, with Gomes producing a fine 82nd-minute save to deny former Tottenham team-mate Jermain Defoe.

"For the players, it's a huge confidence boost and, of course, we're going to have a tough period during Christmas," the Watford goalkeeper said.

"We know that this game could be very important for us, so I'm happy with our performance

"Overall we did great

It's not an easy place to play and they had a few very good results in their last few games, so it's always a tough place to play."

Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce was forced into an early reshuffle after a dreadful start by his team, but was left to bemoan missed chances as his side's problems worsened once again, with Chelsea Manchester City and Liverpool waiting in the wings.

"What (Watford) have done now is they are safe, they won't go down," Allardyce said

"Now the manager can tell you different - I'm telling you now they won't go down, there's no chance.

"If they have a bad run or not, they won't get relegated on what they have achieved up to now, and I think it's because the front two are so good.

"We should have put the points in the bag today

If we could have done, 12 points out of eight (games) and 15 points out of 16, we'd all be going home very happy today - and the difference is mega.

"What we have done today has made a mega difference to the problem we now have."

Source : PA

Source: PA