It did not take long after Watford’s 2-1 victory over Tottenham for a typically opportunistic email from a certain bookmaker to pop into the inbox. “Are Watford The New Leicester?” read the heading, with odds of 500-1 offered on Javi Gracia’s men to repeat the “miracle of 2016”.

The answer to that particular question is almost certainly no but there is no doubting the impressive nature of Watford’s start. Four wins out of four, for only the second time in the club’s history, and having come from behind to beat a side intending to challenge for the Premier League title, it was little wonder Elton John was among those who could be seen dancing with delight in the Vicarage Road sunshine.

Watford are joint-first going into the international break and the question is just how long they can maintain their pristine run. It is a question José Holebas - Watford’s Mr Angry – dismissed as “stupid” after Sunday’s game but from the left-back came the admission something is undeniably stirring in Hertfordshire.

“When I see the boys on the pitch and in training, it’s totally different [to before],” he said. “Some of them understand now what it’s about to be in the Premier League.

“Obviously the first year was difficult as a promoted team, second year again. It’s a time now that we create a team and I think that’s what the club is doing here. Step by step it’s coming.”

A broad narrative has come to define Watford since their return to the top flight in 2015 – that of a club forever in a state of head-scratching change, where neither managers or players stay for any decent length of time. To some extent that is fair given there have been four different managers since promotion and a host of recruits brought in, many on loan, as part of the transfer policy instigated under the unique ownership model of the Pozzo family. But dig deeper and a picture emerges of a club that, as Holebas indicates, have grown steadily for some time and which, it seems clear, is behind their outstanding start.

Take the team who lined up against Tottenham. It contained eight players who have been at Watford since at least 2016, with Craig Cathcart, who scored the winning goal in Sunday’s victory, having been at the club since 2014, and Troy Deeney, the captain and scorer of their first goal, having been there since 2010. Two other players – Will Hughes and Andre Gray – are into their second season while the only summer arrival on show was Ben Foster, who is hardly a new face given he spent two years on loan at Watford during his time at Manchester United.

Javi Gracia is the fourth man to take charge of Watford since they returned to the Premier League in 2015. Photograph: Olly Greenwood/AFP/Getty Images

Familiarity of personnel has been allied to a clear and coherent strategy put in place by Gracia and based on a well-drilled defence, powerful central midfield, craft out wide and, that most unusual thing in high-level English football, a two-man attack. All in all it is working a treat and pushed to one side pre-season predictions of Watford being set for a season of struggle.

The supporters certainly appear to be on board with what is taking place at Vicarage Road and that is because, alongside the on-pitch success, there is a definite sense of theirs being a club in touch with its roots.

That could be seen by the way Watford responded to the death of Graham Taylor in January 2017 and, in a smaller but also notable way, how a call for supporters to help clear snow from the ground before the match against West Bromwich Albion in March was not only met but led to those who turned up, who included a 71-year-old woman, being rewarded with a free ticket to the match and a bacon roll.

That type of thing does not happen at a club that has lost touch with their heartland and serves as further proof that while life under the Pozzos has been eyebrow-raising – changing faces and a tie-up with Udinese in their native Italy and Granada in Spain that prompted a change to Football League’s rules in regards to loan deals – it has not been for the worse.

Rather, Watford have flourished - reaching an FA Cup semi-final two years ago and now, in their fourth successive Premier League campaign, making the type of start which suggests that while a title-assault, à la Leicester 2016, may be beyond them, a run for European qualification, à la Burnley 2018, is not.

“Four wins in a row – I don’t know if it’s ever happened here before but I’m happy,” Holebas said. “I’m happy for the boys, happy for the team and happy for the whole club.”