Watford vs Manchester City: Premier League Preview, H2H & Predicted Line-ups

By Guest writer, Fri 03 December 2021 11:06


Watford vs Manchester  City: Premier League Preview, H2H & Predicted Line-ups 

Saturday's Premier League action concludes at Vicarage Road with an exciting match-up between Watford and Manchester City, with the visitors the heavy betting favourites, and punters can visit this link to place a bet on the game.

The Hornets have failed to build on their stunning 4-1 home victory over Manchester United a fortnight ago, losing back-to-back league matches since.

A 2-1 home defeat to Chelsea in midweek left Claudio Ranieri's side a hovering mere three points clear of 18th-placed Burnley, ramping up more pressure on the Italian manager.

With the Clarets playing away to basement boys Newcastle United, Watford's potential loss to Man City could see them slide to the drop zone.

Pep Guardiola's men eked out a 2-1 triumph over Steven Gerrard's resurgent Aston Villa side in midweek, extending their winning streak in the Premier League to four matches.

City's eye-catching run of form has enabled the reigning Premier League holders to reduce the gap on the current pacesetters, Chelsea, to a single point.

The Cityzens could finish Matchday 15 at the top of the Premier League table with a win at Vicarage Road, as long as Chelsea slump at West Ham in an all-London encounter.

Watford vs Manchester City Head-to-Head

Watford lament an embarrasing 0% win ratio against Man City in the Premier League, having gone winless across their 12 encounters in the competition (D2, L10).

Indeed, the Hornets have lost their last ten top-flight meetings with the Etihad outfit in a row by an aggregate score of 37-4, conceding 3+ goals six of the last seven. 

Bringing other competitions into the equation, the Cityzens are unbeaten in their last 18 matches against Watford (W16, D2), netting an average of 3.27 goals per game in that run.

Watford Preview

Posting their first Premier League win over Man City will require Watford to defy their utterly disastrous top-flight record against reigning champions.

The Hornets have lost 73% of their Premier League matches against defending champions (19/26) en route to setting up an unwanted record in the competition.

Among sides to have faced reigning Premier League champions on 20+ occasions, Watford lament the highest loss percentage. 

However, the abovementioned victory over Man United gives the Hertfordshire side an opportunity to beat both Manchester clubs in a single league campaign for the first time since 1986/87.

The in-form forward Emmanuel Dennis could be crucial to Watford's hopes of staging another upset. 

Since club football returned to action in mid-November, the 24-year-old has scored in three successive Premier League appearances. 

Considering Man Utd, Leicester and Chelsea were the teams to have found themselves on the receiving end of Dennis' lethal finishing, City should pay attention to him.

Manchester City Preview

Since falling to an underwhelming 2-0 home loss to Crystal Palace in late October, Man City have strung together four consecutive Premier League wins by an aggregate score of 9-2.

Away from home, the Cityzens are unbeaten in their last six league fixtures (W5, D1) since a 1-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on the opening weekend.

There's another good omen for the visitors, as they haven't lost any of their last ten competitive games played in December (W7, D3), conceding an average of just 0.3 goals per match in that run.

Interestingly, since Guardiola arrived at the helm in 2016, Man City have registered more Premier League away wins (72) and picked up more points on the road (227) than any other side in the competition.

Though he's never been famous for his scoring prowess, Bernardo Silva has discovered a new virtue of late, starting to find the net on a regular basis.

The former Monaco star has tallied four goals in his last seven Premier League appearances, as many as he managed across his previous 55 in the competition.

In addition to Silva, Raheem Sterling could be another source of threat, with the England international scoring ten and assisting two in his eight competitive outings against Watford.

Watford vs Manchester City Predicted Line-ups

Watford (4-4-1-1): Daniel Bachmann; Jeremy Ngakia, William Troost-Ekong, Craig Cathcart, Danny Rose; Juraj Kucka; Moussa Sissoko, Tom Cleverley, Joao Pedro; Emmanuel Dennis; Joshua King.

Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson; Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Phil Foden; Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish.