It looked like a terrible miss at first glance - and really it was - but Nathaniel Chalobah's dummy to no-one against Bournemouth, when he had the goal at his mercy, does have some mitigating circumstances.

The former Chelsea man, searching for his first strike since his return to Watford for a second spell, was played in by a perfect low cross from Nordin Amrabat during yesterday's game, and looked certain to score from 12 yards.

But to dumbfoundment at both ends of the pitch, he left the ball for a team-mate who never arrived, allowing Bournemouth to clear and briefly save their bacon with the game goalless, albeit Watford would later claim three points through goals from Richarlison and Etienne Capoue.

Chalobah confirmed after the game he had been bamboozled by a call from Bournemouth's Harry Arter pretending to be one of his forward colleagues.

The 22-year-old blamed his own naivity for the incident after the game, and while there have been calls elsewhere that Arter's actions had not been in the spirit of the game, he took it in good spirits.

He said: "He called 'leave it' and I thought it was Tom Cleverley, because he was behind me.

"But I’ll put my hands up. It was a bit naïve and I should have just struck it."

Chalobah would also be denied by a diving Asmir Begovic in the second half, as the two former Chelsea team-mates came up against one another for the first time.

The Watford midfielder robbed Steve Cook of the ball before racing through on goal, only to be stopped by the long limbs of his now foe as he looked to open his account for the saeson.

"He read me a little bit," he said. "I got caught in two minds: I saw Gray for a second, then I looked over and I didn’t see him again.

"At the time I’d already close my angle so it was a last minute thing. You learn from these things and if I get another one-on-one next week I’m sure I’ll learn from it."