It was a tough night at Vicarage Road as we failed to get our usual confident passing game going and find our rhythm against Watford, but we still returned to west London with all three points after Mount opened the scoring and set up Hakim Ziyech for our second-half winner.

However, the 22-year-old was not shying away from the reality of the match and was quick to acknowledge that our performance was not at the level he and the rest of the team expect from themselves.

‘It was difficult,’ he admitted. ‘It probably looked very difficult from the stands and it was exactly the same on the pitch. We weren’t at our best, we know that. We didn’t start well enough, we gave sloppy balls away, away from home at a difficult place to come. You’ve seen top teams come here this season and found it very difficult as well. When we gave the ball away the crowd were up and roaring and it makes it difficult.

‘I don’t think we controlled the game anywhere near what we are capable of and what we’ve done in the past. I heard a stat that it was our third-worst percentage of possession and we felt that as players and you can feel that in the game. We didn’t keep the ball well enough.

‘But at the end of the game we got the three points and a few games before this we maybe should have won and came away with a draw and one point. So you weigh it up and the three points is the most important thing, but we need to get back to our form.

‘We know it wasn’t our best performance and it probably was one of our worst ones so far with the manager, but we got the three points. We have to take the positives from it and we’ll go to the training ground and look at where we weren’t at our best, where we went wrong and in the next game try to put that right.’

However, while it was not the performance Mount and the rest of the Blues wanted, the old cliche of getting the win when you do not play well being the mark of championship challengers was not lost on our number 19.

‘These are the games that you grind out, get the three points, that’s the most important thing at the end of the game. It was a tough one with tackles flying in. It’s a tough place to come to get the three points and play good football because they make it difficult, so we’re buzzing with the three points.

‘I think these are the games you have to win if you want to be pushing up to win the league and we know we didn’t start good enough. We know that as individuals, as a team and we had to regroup and go out there and really affect the game like we normally do.

‘We want to be up there and we want to be winning this league, so these are the games you need to win and sometimes it is difficult and you have to grind out the win. I feel like we did that.’

There were other positives for the midfielder to take from the game too, as he was pleased to find the back of the net for his fourth Premier League goal of the season, although he was quick to acknowledge the part played by Kai Havertz’s assist, and felt the contribution of Ziyech scoring from the bench and another vital late save by Edouard Mendy showed the determination and winning mentality within this Chelsea squad.

‘It was brilliant from Kai,’ added Mount. ‘He could have shot, he was very unselfish and laid it off to me, and my part was just to get it on target, hit it low, hit the bottom corner. I’ve been looking at trying to get in the box and score more goals, so to get another one and an assist at the end as well, I’m buzzing.

‘We never stop fighting, that’s in the group. We never stop going until the final whistle and we knew it was going to be a tough game coming in. Any little chances we had, we had to take. I probably should have done better in the first half when I hit the post, I could have gone across goal, but Hak comes on, he gets his goal, and the three points is big for us after the last game.

‘It shows the desire of the group and for Hakim to come on in a very important part of the game, difficult part of the game, to come on and get his goal was brilliant for him. Edou is always at it and saving big chances and he’s a big player within the group, so I’m very happy for him.’