England

Manchester City Face Must-Win Game Against Watford

The Premier League is back this weekend following some exciting midweek European action, and there is a lot to look forward to. The next few games are going to give us all a pretty good idea of who the contenders are going to be and, in equal measure, who will be the pretenders. The game that we’ll be looking at today will be contested between Manchester City and Watford, which will serve as a rematch of the 2019 FA Cup Final which saw City run out as winners over a dismal Watford side.

Manchester City’s last six games have certainly served as something of a rollercoaster ride for their fans, starting off with a dominant 5-0 triumph over West Ham United in the Premier League. They went on to drop points to Tottenham Hotspur in a somewhat surprising 2-2 draw, before bouncing back with nice wins over Bournemouth and Brighton & Hove Albion. Up next was a somewhat humbling defeat to Norwich City, before they got back on track with a 3-0 Champions League win against Shakhtar Donetsk. Sane, Laporte and Stones are out with Foden being a doubt, whereas Cancelo is hoping to make his full City debut as De Bruyne looks set to be rested.

Watford’s last six games have been even more unpredictable than City’s starting off with three straight losses against Brighton, Everton and West Ham in which they scored just one goal and conceded seven. They went onto beat Coventry City 3-0 in the Carabao Cup, before drawing 1-1 with Newcastle United. In their last outing they were able to come from 2-0 to salvage a dramatic point against Arsenal. In terms of team news, Welbeck still isn’t fully fit with Quique Sanchez Flores being expected to maintain a similar starting XI to the Arsenal encounter.

Manchester City vs Watford Betting Prediction

Watford are plucky and they’ve got a bit of momentum going for themselves, but that isn’t going to be enough for a City side that are in need of a return to winning ways in the Premier League. We think that Pep’s side will be able to edge themselves ahead early on, before maintaining that lead throughout the course of the game. The Hornets will attempt to make it difficult for them but when your attacking prowess is as impressive as City’s, it’s really difficult to imagine any kind of scenario in which they are put under sustained pressure – especially at the Etihad.