Chelsea bounced back from their bad defeat at West Ham with a comfortable 3-0 win against a relegation-threatened Watford side at Stamford Bridge.
The contest was pretty much done and dusted at half time with Olivier Giroud’s assured finish and Willian’s composed penalty giving them a 2-0 lead.
Watford slightly improved after Danny Welbeck’s introduction but the final goal of the game went to Chelsea as Ross Barkley rounded off the win with an emphatic finish.
There will be fears about N’Golo Kante’s fitness as the midfielder came off late in the second half with a suspected hamstring injury.
The result sees Chelsea go back into fourth, having briefly lost their spot in the Champions League positions on Saturday, while the Hornets are just a point above the bottom three and 18th-placed Aston Villa have a game in hand on them. That game in hand is Liverpool away, however.
Manchester United thrashing Bournemouth meant Chelsea could ill-afford another slip-up against a lowly side. But it was a relatively stress-free evening with the job being pretty much completed at half time as they found themselves 2-0 up.
The first chance of the game saw Giroud put through by Pulisic but Ben Foster saved the striker’s low effort with his feet. Giroud wasn’t to be denied on 28 minutes though as he latched onto Ross Barkley’s incisive through ball before firing it in-off the post.
Being 1-0 down wouldn’t have been disastrous for Watford but being two goals behind is a completely different kettle of fish and they found themselves down when Willian tucked the ball away from the penalty spot.
Only Capoue will know what he was thinking when he decided to go charging into Pulisic, who was about to deliver a cross but was crucially inside the box and referee Kevin Friend had no choice but to give the foul. Willian sent Foster the wrong way to score his third penalty in successive Premier League matches.
Chelsea let their lead at West Ham slip have been guilty of doing it in other matches this term but they managed the second half well.
Willian forced Foster into palming his effort away while Watford’s only notable moment saw Kepa save a low effort by substitute Danny Welbeck.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek should have made it 3-0 right at the end but timed his header all wrong.
So the full-time whistle saw Lampard’s men restore their place in fourth and while Watford are just above the drop zone, they’ll slip into it if Aston Villa can beat Liverpool on Sunday.
