What next for Watford following their relegation from the Premier League?

Watford have been relegated for the second time in three years after a 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

The Hornets went into the game knowing they were already all but down and their fate was confirmed with three games of the season to go.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at what went wrong over the course of the season.

Three managers and just six league wins, including only two since November, tell their own story. Watford won their opening game of the season 3-2 against Aston Villa, but they have tasted victory just once more at home all campaign – 4-1 over Manchester United – and went into the Palace game on a five-match losing run. Despite having quality up front in the likes of Ismaila Sarr and Emmanuel Dennis, none of Xisco Munoz, Claudio Ranieri and Roy Hodgson have been able to get their best out of the squad.

Defence has been the biggest problem, having conceded 70 goals in 35 games. They have only kept three clean sheets in the league and only one of those games resulted in a win.

At the other end of the pitch, Dennis, a summer signing from Club Brugge, started the season in impressive fashion and has hit 10 league goals this term – a more than decent return for a player in his first season in English football and playing for a team battling relegation – but his form has tailed off since the turn of the year. He has netted just two since then. No one else has managed more than five goals. Home form in particular was been an issue, with just seven points won at Vicarage Road from 17 games, comfortably the worst in the division.

Dennis had been by far the most effective acquisition. Moussa Sissoko, signed from Tottenham, has been steady if unspectacular in midfield, but defender Hassane