The 25-year-old has stepped up to the mantle to announce himself as the centrepiece of Tom Cleverley’s high-flying side following a period of gradual adaptation during his opening campaign with the club.
Chakvetadze initially signed for Watford on loan from Slovan Bratislava last summer, and the Hornets sought to make his stay at Vicarage Road a permanent one by forking out a fee reportedly in the region of £2.5 million back in February.
At the time and from the outside looking in, Watford’s decision to capture Chakvetadze permanently for a not-insignificant sum appeared to resemble something of a gamble. While the attacking midfielder displayed signs of tangible promise at Vicarage Road, the consistency perhaps wasn’t quite there across the course of the season, and he didn’t exactly pull up too many trees, returning a solitary strike and three assists from 34 Championship appearances.
But Watford supporters seemed to know that the division was soon to see what they all knew when he managed to match his entire seasonal tally from the previous term when he scored a stunning 30-yard free-kick against Millwall on the opening day – and he’s only gone from strength-to-strength from there on in.
