Ole Gunnar Solskjaer heaped praise on Bruno Fernandes after Manchester United’s big-money January signing put in yet another man-of-the-match display.

Summer interest in the 25-year-old turned into an active pursuit last month, with protracted negotiations with Sporting Lisbon finally bearing fruit towards the end of the transfer window.

Fernandes arrived for an initial 55 million euros (£46.6million) and, while that could rise to 80 million euros (£67.7million) if a variety of targets are reached, United look to have struck a good deal.

Watford were far from that standard on Sunday, although they saw a Troy Deeney equaliser ruled out as Craig Dawson was adjudged by the video assistant referee to have handled.

“It’s a frustrating day in the sense that, when you play the bigger clubs, it’s very important that when you create chances or have opportunities, you do everything you can to take them,” the head coach said.

“We didn’t take the chances we had early in the game. I think our attempts to press them high up the pitch caused them a few problems in terms of frustrating them at times.

“I think we were a bit annoyed with ourselves to come in 1-0 down because we had some good chances and showed decent discipline in terms of our shape, but from an attacking situation, we’ve been countered and conceded a penalty.”