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Chelsea Aim To Seal Top Four Against Watford

The Premier League season is set to come to a very gradual end over the course of the next few weeks, and in the process, a lot of things will be determined. One of the most intriguing races of them all this season has been the hunt for the top four, which could quite easily wind up going down to the final day of the season. Four teams have been waging war in an attempt to secure a place in the Champions League, and yet, many people feel like they’ve all made some pretty poor mistakes along the way. When you analyse the evidence, it’s hard to argue with that.

One of the most intriguing Sunday games that we’re going to take a look at is Chelsea vs Watford, with one team still fighting for something (or a few things) and the other focusing their attention on the cup final. These two London-based clubs aren’t exactly considered to be burning rivals or anything like that, but it’s certainly interesting to see what kind of dynamic we’re going to get between the two of them this weekend. Will it be a one sided affair, or will the visitors do everything in their power to upset the status quo?

Chelsea fans seem to be just waiting for confirmation of Maurizio Sarri’s departure, and that’s not even us trying to say that all of their fans want to see it. In fact, it’s quite the contrary. If Sarri is able to secure fourth and also bring a trophy home in the form of the Europa League, we’d call that a pretty successful campaign. Of course, there are such fine margins in this game and in the Premier League, to the point where you never truly know where a manager stands until the dust has finally settled on the season.

Watford have one thought in their mind now that seventh place is gone: the FA Cup final. They worked incredibly hard to book their return ticket to Wembley when they beat Wolves in their phenomenal semi final comeback, and you can bet that they’ll bring that kind of determination to the final against Manchester City. That game and that game alone serves as their only possible route back into European football, but beyond that, the idea that they could be lifting a trophy high in front of their fans is a great motivator.

Chelsea’s last six games have been pretty inconsistent to say the least, with their only two wins coming against the same opposition: Slavia Prague. They were able to register a nice 1-0 win over in the Czech Republic, before a dramatic 4-3 win back at Stamford Bridge saw them through to the semi finals. In between that they lost to title contenders Liverpool, but ever since then, they’ve been on something of a draw frenzy. They dropped points at the hands of Burnley in a 2-2 draw, they drew 1-1 with Manchester United, and they were unable to get a first leg win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League (although they did score an away goal).

Watford’s last six game stretch began with a dominant 4-1 triumph over Fulham, and then at Wembley, they came from 2-0 down to defeat Wolverhampton Wanderers in one of the most sensational cup semi finals you’re ever likely to see. They wound up losing a pretty controversial game to Arsenal, but they got right back on the horse with a 2-1 triumph against Huddersfield. A 1-1 (fortunate) 1-1 draw against Southampton came next, and then in a Premier League rematch against Wolves, Nuno’s men were able to get their revenge.

The meetings between these two teams haven’t been particularly frequent throughout the course of history, with the first encounter taking place back in 1970. Since then Chelsea have been able to accumulate 18 wins in comparison to Watford’s 10, with six draws being thrown in there too. Their last showdown took place on Boxing Day 2018 and it was actually pretty competitive, with Chelsea just about managing to come away with a 2-1 win. Ever since then, though, you could definitely argue that both teams have changed in a way that will make the rematch this weekend more intriguing than most fans could’ve expected it to be.

Antonio Rudiger is set to be out for the remainder of the season, and he is set to join Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ethan Ampadu on the shelf. Gary Cahill is set to be a doubt, but given his current trajectory, he wasn’t expected to feature anyway. Sarri won’t make all too many changes with Loftus-Cheek being tipped to keep his spot, after a fantastic performance in Germany against Frankfurt during the week. One or two big names could come off early if the result is in the bag, as the boss looks ahead to their vital Europa League second leg next week.

Troy Deeney is finally set to return from his suspension, as he prepares to add some much needed bite back into this Watford team ahead of their FA Cup final. Deulofeu is expected to start in the aftermath of his own FA Cup heroics, with Andre Gray going back to the role of ‘super sub’. Holebas is expected to keep his spot in the starting XI despite not impressing all too much in the loss against Wolves, with Tom Cleverley being one of the other big doubts. Quina and Prodl will both miss out on this game.

Chelsea vs Watford Betting Prediction

Watford will probably try and cause some frustrations for the Blues in the first half, as you’d expect given their general style of play. They like to get in the face of their opponents and make things physical, and why wouldn’t you? They’ve got some decent talent in their ranks to go alongside that so we wouldn’t be surprised to see them take the lead, but if we’re going to offer up an official prediction, we still believe that Sarri’s men will be able to absorb the pressure and make some gains of their own.

In the end they’ll be able to score a couple of goals late in the game, which will inevitably be enough to give them the three points. The hope for Chelsea will be that they don’t sustain too many injuries, and in equal measure, that they don’t tire out too many of their top stars. You could argue that the team selection is going to dictate that before the game even gets started, but we wouldn’t be all too shocked to see the Hornets go in a little bit harder than usual. Then again, they’ve got their own ‘big game’ to worry about.