Watches chaps with no energy, nothing in place (7)
I believe the answer is:
follows
'watches' is the definition.
(I know this)
'chaps with no energy nothing in place' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'with' could be 'w' (abbreviation) and 'w' is found in the answer.
'no' could be 'o' (O resembles 0) and 'o' is present in the answer.
'nothing' could be 'o' (looks like zero - 0) and 'o' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for follows that I've seen before include "Goes or comes after" , "Pursues" .)