Tom Cleverley felt Watford let vulnerable Norwich City off the hook.

The Hornets’ chief wanted to probe for any ‘anxiety’ after the Canaries had picked up five points in their opening five games, but fell behind within three minutes and finished well beaten at Carrow Road.

“We are coming to a team who have probably underachieved in their first five games, five points from five games, and we just didn’t create any nerves amongst the home crowd because we start the game so slowly,” he said. “We don’t let the atmosphere get fragile or anxious.

"We wanted to come here and be aggressive and create anxiety, and the start didn’t allow us to do that. It was how I liked to play. I wanted to show energy and get on the front foot, and I would like my teams to show that. Sometimes you get punished doing that.

The starts to games are a really worry now, and it was a terrible time to concede the second. From our throw-in, to concede 10 seconds later is a game management issue. It completely changed the game plan in the second half. In the end we probably didn’t have the goal return our chances warranted.”

Cleverley felt Norwich handled the big moments far better.

“We are not managing moments well enough. Whether it is cool heads or pieces of quality or whether it is about finding those leaders,” he said. “It is my job to teach some of the less experienced guys what that looks like. How you start, how you respond to goals just before half-time - we are not managing these situations well enough.

“(Conceding early) is an issue that we all will correct and we will keep working as hard as possible until we do.

“We were poor conceding crosses against Coventry last week, and we got away with it, but there were a couple again in this game.

“There are nine points up for grabs in seven days coming up, and we can still have a really positive block of games even after this result. These are the weeks that really define your season.”