Watford defender Adrian Mariappa has apologised to the club’s supporters in the wake of their 8-0 loss to Manchester City on Saturday.

The Hornets endured a miserable afternoon at the Etihad Stadium and were 5-0 down inside 18 minutes as the champions ran riot.

It was the fastest any side has gone 5-0 ahead in a Premier League match, while for Watford the final score of 8-0 was their heaviest defeat in the top four tiers of English football.

And centre-back Mariappa, who was captain on Saturday in the absence of the injured Troy Deeney, said: “There’s no excuse for our performance today.

“All I can do is apologise to the fans that travelled up. At the end of the game they were all applauding us.

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“It was a bad performance from us and all we can do is try and put it right on Tuesday and in the weeks coming.

“We’ve been through bad runs before and come out the other side, so we’re going to have to show our togetherness and character in this run that we’re on but I’ve got full faith that we will do that.”

Watford have the chance to immediately bounce back on Tuesday when they take on Swansea City in the Carabao Cup and Mariappa is backing his team-mates to put in a performance.

“We’re a very tight squad here and we’ll have to come together to pull through,” he said.

“We’ve got a game on Tuesday to put in a good performance and get a good result.

"We’ve got a good squad here and a firm belief that we will turn it around, it’s just about showing it on the pitch now.”