Nigel Pearson says Watford are 'fighting for their lives' after losing 3-1 to Southampton on Sunday.
The defeat means Watford remain one point ahead of Bournemouth and West Ham in 16th position, although those teams have a game in hand.
"It was a difficult day against a side who moved the ball better than us and coped with the situation better than us," he said.
"Again, we made too many unforced errors and made mistakes for the goals and gave ourselves far too much to do and it's disappointing for sure.
"I'm looking more at the performance and really what happened to put us in the situation that we're in today and that is again fighting for our lives because we've not found the performance levels that I would expect from us."
