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Watford head coach Marco Silva has suggested Stoke City's Xherdan Shaqiri was lucky not to face any action over an incident with Andre Carrillo during the Potters' one-nil victory at Vicarage Road last week.

Troy Deeney was handed a three-game ban for digging his fingers into Joe Allen's jaw - a decision Silva accepts - but he has pointed to another clash which was not picked up by Sky Sports or the BBC in their highlights packages, which he says clearly shows Shaqiri punching Carrillo.

Silva has seen footage of the clash, which was spotted by many Watford fans and mentioned on social media, and believes that it was worthy of a ban.

He spoke to referee Michael Oliver at the game, but did not mention that specific incident as he was not sure what had happened before seeing the video clip.

But having rewatched Shaqiri and Carrillo coming together, he was left in no uncertain terms over what action should be taken.

"In that moment [speaking to Oliver] I hadn't seen it. I felt something had happened when Carrillo went down in that moment after the punch by Shaqiri, but when I spoke to the referee at the end of the game, I didn't speak about that," he explained.

"I spoke with him about the other situations during the match and what I expect.

"I think after seeing the match, not in the same way, but something happened more during the match for another player [Shaqiri] to be banned as well, when I saw one player push our player that could be a ban too.

On Deeney's ban, he explained the club's decision not to appeal the decision.

"We as a club, even privately, accept the decision. It's not the best for us as a team, but we need to accept it," he said.

"Of course it's clear that I know the panel decided a three-match ban.

(Image: Getty Images)

"Now, my job is to find other solutions for our team. There's nothing more to say except that it wasn't a good moment and he accepts that. I've talked with him, he knows my opinion about it but we have to accept it.

"I believe, and he knows, that as our captain and an experienced player he knows the Premier League and that he needs to be calm and pass it on for the younger players. He knows what I think about the situation.

"Not only him - as a captain he has to give an example for everyone else - but the players with more experience in our squad need to pass on this calm approach."

Silva is not worried about his squad's ability to cope with Deeney's absence, though, pointing out that he has only started three games, and that the Hornets have plenty of other options through the middle.

"It's a normal situation and now I have to find the answers like we have done in the past," he added.

"It's not a perfect scenario but we will deal with it. Troy has started three matches now, in the others we've played with other players, so we can cope.

"We started the season with four players who can play there and if you think of Richarlison, it's five. We have Troy, we have Andre [Gray], we have [Stefano] Okaka, Jerome [Sinclair and maybe Richarlison.

"I will decide what is the best solution."