Nigel Pearson is surprised at how much he is enjoying life back in the Premier League. Watford, too, are revelling in his return as the manager has transformed their fortunes since his arrival last month. Six points adrift at the bottom when he was appointed, they are now within touching distance of safety thanks to this hard-fought win over Wolves that took their tally from the last four matches to 10 points.

Normally teams in trouble fall apart when things go against them but Watford are doing the opposite, with this game being the second in a row they have won despite being reduced to 10 men. Christian Kabasele had a yellow card upgraded to a red with more than 20 minutes left but Watford fended off Wolves, who could not add to Pedro Neto’s goal. The ones scored by Gerard Deulofeu and Abdoulaye Doucouré were enough to fuel increasingly realistic hopes of a successful rescue mission by Pearson.

“I’m surprised I’m enjoying it as much as I am because, quite frankly, in my own mind I was sort of semi-retired [before Watford asked him to replace Quique Sáanchez Flores three weeks ago],” Pearson said. “I was not really looking to get back into work. But now I’m back working I’m enjoying the challenge. I know we still have an awful lot of hard work to do but both [coach] Craig [Shakespeare] and myself have come into it and just said ‘let’s give everything we can to it and see where it takes us’.

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“There is a lot of hard work to be done and it would be foolish to think the job is over – it’s far from over – but we’ve given ourselves more of a chance by getting back in contact with the pack.”

Troy Deeney attributes Watford’s improvement to the “no BS culture” that Pearson has fostered, explaining the manager’s “high standards” have inspired everyone at Vicarage Road. Wolves, mind you, made the better start and should have taken the lead.

First, Ben Foster made a fine save to thwart Matt Doherty after an excellent pass from deep by Conor Coady. Then Doherty supplied a precise diagonal pass to Raúl Jiménez, who took the ball down on his chest before steering a shot way off target from 15 yards.

Wolves felt wronged in the 22nd minute when Neto was booked for simulation after beating Craig Dawson to the ball and tumbling in the box over the defender’s outstretched leg. There was contact but not, according to the referee and VAR, enough to justify the defender’s fall.

Then Watford began to assert themselves, especially through Deulofeu. In the 29th minute he wriggled into the box before feeding Ismaila Sarr, who forced a solid save from Rui Patrício from 12 yards. But the goalkeeper was beaten one minute later after a mistake by Leander Dendoncker, who gave the ball away to Sarr. The forward helped it on to Deulofeu, who fired into the far corner of the net.

Watford nearly extended their lead from a simple throw-in, with Deeney flicking on Dawson’s delivery to Deulofeu, who skewed his shot over from close range.

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As with the first, Watford’s second goal, four minutes into the second half, originated in unusually loose play by Wolves, with Jiménez gifting away possession in midfield. Deulofeu skittered towards the area and fed Doucouré, who struck his shot well but needed a deflection off Coady to beat the goalkeeper.

Neto gave Wolves fresh hope. The 19-year-old, who was so distraught to have a goal disallowed by VAR at Anfield on Sunday enjoyed good fortune this time as his shot from 20 yards took a nick off Kabasele and flew over Foster into the net.

Neto was replaced by Diogo Jota, whose first involvement was to be pulled down at the edge of the area by Kabasele. The referee, Andrew Madley, showed the defender a yellow card but VAR advised him to change it to a red on the grounds that Jota would have had an obvious scoring chance if not for the foul.

“We were hanging on a little bit but the desire of the players to keep the ball out of the net and put their bodies on the line was clear for everybody to see,” Pearson said. “That bodes well.”