It was a summer evening breeze for Chelsea and another sell-out crowd as we finished our exciting pre-season preparations well at Vicarage Road tonight.

There was even another delayed kick-off but just as at Palace on Saturday, that couldn’t delay the impressive Mikael Forssell from making an early impact. After only eleven minutes he began the evening’s goal entertainment but he had almost opened the scoring five minutes earlier when his shot from a Gronkjaer lay-back was palmed over.

When the goal did come it, it was Wayne Bridge’s lofted diagonal ball that started the danger. The young Finn did well to collect it behind his marker and when it fell nicely at his feet, he gave keeper Chamberlain little chance this time with a well-hit low finish.

Frank Lampard was almost the beneficiary as Forssell turned creator a minute later, with a neat back-heel into his path. The shot that followed crashed against the post.

We didn’t have to wait long for the second however. On 16 minutes Jesper Gronkjaer did what he does best and hared away down the right. Paul Robinson attempted to catch and disposes him as the goal beckoned but simply didn’t have the legs and conceded a clear penalty.

Whether Jimmy felt the pressure after his spot-kick failure in Malaysia only he will know but with a run-up and a dummy this time, he thankfully didn’t repeat his only penalty miss for Chelsea so far.

The fluent Blues were gliding around the pitch at this stage and Geremi, again impressive and secure in the middle, was next to strike bad luck as his shot from outside the area hit the post. He wasn’t as unlucky as Watford’s Neil Ardley however who attempted to clear the rebound but only succeeded in finding his own net.

Forssell saw a powerful header from a Lampard cross well saved and then another Lampard cross from the right gave Hasselbaink a heading chance but with a tamer effort, he too was denied by Chamberlain.

Just past the half-hour mark, Watford, who had up to that point failed to threaten pulled one back when Helgusson got behind Desailly and Melchiot to head in a cross with Ambrosio no chance of saving.

Chelsea went back on the offensive before the break with Gronkjaer steaming away and finding his fellow winger Duff with a low lay-back. Chamberlain again kept the goal tally down.

The inevitable switches came at half-time, Gudjohnsen and Johnson replacing Forssell and Bridge with Johnson going to left-back. It didn’t disrupt the flow and seven minutes beyond the break, the fourth came.

Duff skipped over some midfield tackles and surged forward. He rolled the ball out left to Gudjohnsen who skimmed it across the turf to force another Chamberlain save. This time though, the rebound fell to Duff who was following up in coaching manual style and he calmly unbalanced the Watford keeper before poking home. It was his first Chelsea goal.

Now it was the youngsters’ turn when around the 65 minute mark, Huth replaced Desailly, Oliviera took the place of Duff and Cole followed soon after, coming on for Gronkjaer. There was a welcome return for an oldie as well when Manu Petit began his pre-season action in place of Lampard.

Hasselbaink and Gudjohnsen once again showed signs of the old telepathy, if not the old finishing when both should have done better with defence splitting passes from the other.

Jimmy was replaced late on by Keenan but it was the substitution that followed that brought the biggest cheer and practically the first song of the game. ‘One Kevin Hitchcock’ roared the Chelsea fans as our long-time servant, now a Watford coach, ran on to keep goal in front of them for the closing minute or so.

M-O-T-M=Geremi