Walter Mazzarri has admitted that he wants his Watford players to put games to bed earlier after seeing Burnley come close to snatching a point at Vicarage Road.

The Hornets opened up a two-goal lead thanks to first-half headers from Troy Deeney and new signing M'Baye Niang, only for the 10 men of Burnley to pull one back 12 minutes from time.

Ashley Barnes had a chance to earn a draw for the visitors in added time, sending his scuffed shot into the hands of Heurelho Gomes, but in the end Watford held out for a 2-1 win.

Mazzarri has now called on his side to become more ruthless in front of goal following a positive week, having also defeated Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium last Tuesday.

"I'm very happy of course because we won," he told reporters. "I liked the way we played in the first half but I'm not happy at all about the second. This is why I say we have to grow in mentality as a team because the big teams would have closed this game like we should.

"We could have scored three or four goals but we didn't do it and we risked losing three points for immature mistakes that could have changed the game. The only excuse I can find is that we played a very important game a few days ago against Arsenal where we spent a lot in terms of condition.

"Also we have many players coming back from injury who are still finding the perfect condition but we should have scored the third goal. Before this game I told my players that the transfer market is finished and you are the team that is going to be until the end of the season and you always have to go with the same spirit as we had at Arsenal."

Watford, who have now netted two or more goals in three consecutive Premier League games for the first time, are back in action next weekend with a trip to face Manchester United.