Former Watford captain Gavin Mahon believes the Hornets will flourish in the Premier League and has tipped the Golden Boys to follow the lead of Swansea City and Southampton by surviving in style.

The 38-year-old spent six years at Vicarage Road as a player and was skipper the last time the club embarked on a top-flight campaign. Watford are a very different side from nine years ago, however. The Pozzo takeover has seen to that.

The Hornets are not a physical and powerful side who will look to bully their opponents. Since the Italian family purchased the Golden Boys in 2012, Watford’s style of play hasn’t been dramatically altered; it has been effective possession-based football.

Spanish coach Quique Sanchez Flores will of course have his own tactical vision but, you imagine, is not likely to make dramatic changes to that style.

Mahon believes that can only benefit Watford, who he feels are capable of coming up from the Championship and quickly establishing themselves in the Premier League.

Speaking to the Watford Observer last week, he said: “I saw Watford three of four times last season and I really enjoyed watching them. They had a great style and it is one that would suit them in the Premier League.

"Watford remind me of Swansea and Southampton in that respect, their style won’t suffer in the Premier League.

“They also made good signings. Bringing in people like Ben Watson and (Adlene) Guedioura, players who knew the Championship and knew how to grind out results, was important.

“It will be interesting to see what style the new head coach implements. He has probably watched a lot of Watford’s matches and knows he has to build on what is already there.

“There is already quality and they have a talismanic captain in Troy Deeney. With one or two more quality signings I think they will be fine.”

On the opening day of the 2015/16 Premier League season, Watford will walk out at Everton’s Goodison Park looking to get their top-flight campaign off to a winning start. Stop me, Hornets fans, if you think that you’ve heard this one before.

Rewind almost nine years and you’ll find the same scenario. The newly-promoted Golden Boys travelling to the Toffees’ stadium in hope of starting their Premier League campaign with victory.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a dream start for Aidy Boothroyd’s side back in 2006. They were beaten 2-1 and were the victim of one of the strangest refereeing decisions of the season.

The hosts, whilst leading 1-0, were awarded an 82nd-minute penalty after the ball struck Chris Powell. Handball was the decision but Tim Cahill’s cross was clearly blocked by Powell’s head.

Mahon picks up the story.

“That was a very strange way to start the season,” he admitted. “It was an incredibly harsh decision and one that cost us a chance of getting a result in the opening game.

“But a couple of days after the match we sat down as a squad and watched it back. I think it was then we realised we could compete in the Premier League. We certainly didn’t look out of our depth.”

That is always the worry for a newly-promoted side; the step up.

While the Championship offers a unique brand of full-blooded football and a relentless fixture list, the Premier League is very different. The smallest mistakes will be punished by ruthless multi-millionaire international players. In 2006, it took Watford ten league matches before they claimed victory.

“I don’t think we were ever completely outclassed by the opposition,” Mahon, who is now a football agent, explained.

“However, we conceded quite a few late goals which proved costly. There was that stat which was Watford would have finished in mid-table if matches ended after 80 minutes. It shows you we weren’t that far away.

“But if you don’t make a good start it is difficult to get the momentum going again. We lost Marlon King to injury less than two months into the season as well and that really hurt us.

“He led our attack excellently. I was actually speaking to [former Watford striker] Darius Henderson a couple of weeks ago and we spoke about how our game was affected by Marlon’s injury.

“Marlon never wanted the ball into his feet, he always wanted it behind the defence so he could chase down the pass and create problems for the defence. We lost that when he was injured.

“Darius couldn’t do the same thing, it wasn’t his game. We had to change our style after Marlon’s injury which was very difficult for us.”