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Watford Battle Chelsea In Boxing Day Showdown

The next set of fixtures will take place after Christmas and while many are excited about the festivities, there’s also a reason to be excited about the immediate aftermath of the day – and that’s the Boxing Day fixtures. It’s one of the most important days of the football calendar and there’s one very simple reason for that: it’s so hectic. The majority of clubs are playing in English football, including the Premier League, with some of the finest clubs Europe has to offer showcasing what they can do for the world to see. That sounds a bit over the top, but it’s true.

One game that we’re particularly intrigued by is Watford vs Chelsea. While every single game has an individual story that interests us, this one is a little bit different. You’ve got two London-based sides who would’ve had very different ambitions at the start of the campaign, but now, they appear to be more evenly matched than people would’ve expected. Of course, one team will quite clearly and quite obviously be favoured over the other, but the nature of football means you never quite know what is going to happen next – which should be pretty reassuring for the Hornets.

Under the guidance of Javi Gracia, Watford have been able to pick up some seriously impressive results this season. Very few could’ve anticipated that they’d be as close to the Europa League spots as they actually are, but such is the nature of Premier League football. They feel like a team that will constantly push themselves from the first minute until the very last, regardless of whether they’re 3-0 up or 5-0 down. They play for the fans just as much as they play for themselves, and that’s probably why they’ve had so much success since the season kicked off back in the summer.

Chelsea, on the other hand, have had an intriguing campaign to say the least. They’ve lost a few games they should’ve won, but in turn, they’ve also beaten a lot of sides in all competitions. Maurizio Sarri almost certainly appears to be the right man for the job and that’s not always been the case when the Blues make appointments. He feels like a man who will just focus on getting the job done, and as the season goes on, there’s a very good chance we could see Chelsea surprise a few people both in the Prem and in Europe.

Watford’s last six game stretch has certainly been an interesting one, and it’s certainly been a little bit inconsistent. They kicked things off with an emphatic defeat at the hands of Liverpool, before losing 2-0 to Leicester City. The losing run extended once again with a narrow loss against Manchester City, although that’s not excatly the most embarrassing result in the world. They picked up a 2-2 draw against Everton before a nice 3-2 win over Cardiff City, and yesterday, they were able to defeat West Ham United 2-0 in a result that solidified their status as a top half Premier League side.

Chelsea have also struggled as of late, kicking off this six game stretch with a shock defeat at the hands of Wolverhampton Wanderers. They managed to bounce back in the most Chelsea way possible by defeating league favourites Manchester City, before an equally inconsistent 2-2 draw against Vidi. They managed to edge out Brighton and Bournemouth with nice back to back wins, but they came crashing back down to earth once again last night when they were defeated 1-0 by Leicester City. So one thing is for sure: they’re going to be in the mood to ruin Watford’s Christmas.

While it isn’t exactly a fixture that we’re seen all too many times throughout the course of history, with their first meeting taking place back in 1970. Since then Chelsea have been able to win 17 games in comparison to the Hornets’ 10, with six draws in between. Interestingly enough their last meeting was bizarrely emphatic, with Watford winning the game 4-1. In the last three games between the two teams there have been 18 goals, which should tell you all that you need to know regarding what we’re expecting to go down when they meet in what will be the late kick off on Boxing Day.

Troy Deeney and Deulofeu will be expected to lead the line as they have done so well throughout the course of the season, and while they aren’t always overwhelmingly prolific in front of goal, they certainly did their job against West Ham. Foster, who has had a solid season thus far, will be looked towards as one of the key contributors in this game, as we all know Chelsea are going to bombard them coming forward. They won’t want to make all too many changes, and to be perfectly honest, it doesn’t feel like they need to make them.

The main man is going to be Eden Hazard in this one and that’s just a fact. The Belgian is Chelsea’s stand out star, and whenever he plays, the tempo of the game runs through him. There will be some questions regarding whether or not Kante, Jorginho and Kovacic will all be fully fit to line up with one another, but even if they’re not, the Blues certainly have good strength in depth. With even more big games coming up in the New Year, we wouldn’t be entirely stunned if one or two players were rested – as we all know the schedule is ridiculous.

Watford vs Chelsea Betting Prediction

The Blues are going to come out like a house on fire, as they know Arsenal are going to be right on their tail in the race for the top four. While they have a strong enough starting XI to make some pretty big things happen in this game, Watford are great at shutting down sides they should be losing against. Under the lights at Vicarage Road, we legitimately believe that they could get a positive result – but even with that kind of mind set, we’re still predicting Chelsea to take the three points.

We think Watford will push them back and even take the lead in the first half, but the impending pressure from the visitors will just be too much. Chelsea will equalise soon after the restart, and while it’ll take some time, their winner will come late in the game. Either way Chelsea need to think about investing in a striker during the January transfer window, because they could struggle otherwise. In this game, though, they should have enough to overcome the challenge of Watford, which is a much more impressive result than people would’ve thought it’d be in August.