Given that it was little more than a duel between Ben Foster and Chelsea’s forwards at times, it would have been a strange twist if the goalkeeper had rescued a point for Watford with the game’s final act. They were into the sixth minute of added time when Foster, who had kept his side in it with countless saves, decided to charge forward after Mason Mount conceded a free-kick deep on the left, and it would have been an extraordinary ending if the 36-year-old’s downward header had crept beyond Kepa Arrizabalaga.

It was not to be. Arrizabalaga plunged down to his left to make a superb save and the Spaniard’s heroics stopped Chelsea blowing the chance to move into third place, ensuring that there were limits to Frank Lampard’s anger after the late VAR intervention that gave Gerard Deulofeu, who had tumbled after feeling minimal contact from Jorginho, the chance to drag Watford back into the game from the penalty spot in the 80th minute.

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“I have to be careful but last week we saw a change in VAR, a clear change in penalties getting overturned,” Lampard said. “I was at a managers’ meeting in midweek and we spoke a lot about it. The consensus from managers, referees, the Premier League was the penalties or decisions are not going to get overturned unless they’re absolutely clear and obvious, and the VAR absolutely saw something that the referee on the pitch didn’t see.

“This didn’t, it nowhere near showed that, and the longer it took the more worried I got. I’m so surprised from coming away from that meeting to have that decision today. We’re not in a great place with it, are we? Anything that takes that long means there’s something they’re not sure about, so why aren’t we using the screen at the side of the pitch?”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Frank Lampard celebrates with the Chelsea fans. Photograph: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Lampard was also annoyed the margin of victory was not more emphatic as his slick side equalled a club record with their seventh consecutive away win in all competitions. Chelsea might have rued their generous finishing on another day and their manger was not alone in struggling to understand how Watford, who are bottom of the league and winless in their first 11 games, almost snatched an unlikely point.

Chelsea had taken control from the start and there were five minutes on the clock when Jorginho carved Watford open with an assist that meant Tammy Abraham did not even have to take a touch before scoring his ninth goal of the season. It was a stunning pass from the midfielder, delivered with enough pace and bend to expose Craig Dawson’s slack positioning in central defence, and Abraham ran clear before dinking a lovely finish over Foster.

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Watford’s hopes of containment were in tatters. They had lined up in a cautious 5-4-1 system but Chelsea cut through them at will and only a series of wonderful saves from Foster meant the game hung in the balance at the break. The veteran goalkeeper showed quick reflexes to deny Abraham a second, he leapt to his right to claw Christian Pulisic’s header aside and he completed a hat-trick of brilliant stops on the stroke of half-time, springing to his left to tip Mount’s thunderous effort on to the bar.

There was little to inconvenience Chelsea at the other end, save for a drive from Deulofeu that skidded wide, and they doubled their lead in the 55th minute. Foster had just made another fine stop from Mount when Willian fed Abraham, who drilled in a low cross that Pulisic converted from close range.

It threatened to become an ordeal for Watford after the American winger’s fourth goal in three games, following his hat-trick in the 4-2 win at Burnley last Saturday. There were widespread jeers when Quique Sánchez Flores replaced Daryl Janmaat with Kiko Femenía in the 75th minute and it is doubtful that the disgruntled home fans were fooled by the late flurry that followed Deulofeu’s penalty.