Quick-fire match preview – Watford
This Saturday sees Alex Neil’s Norwich team travel down south to London to take on a high-flying Watford side. The home side, Watford, go into the game having won three of their last five Premier League games; Norwich, however, has won just one in their last nine.
Alex Tettey returns for the Canaries, whilst Matt Jarvis remains on the sideline with a long-term injury. Russell Martin could feature having been an unused substitute last time out for Norwich. Here’s my Norwich City eleven:
Ruddy; Wisdom, Bassong, Bennett, Olsson; Redmond, Mulumbu, Tettey, Brady; Hoolahan; Mbokani.
Watford could be without the services of veteran ‘keeper Heurelho Gomes after he was stretchered off against Villa last weekend, having sustained an injury to his neck. Lastly for the Hornets, long-term injuries for Joel Ekstrand and Sebastian Prodl mean that they will miss this clash.
With the Canaries having kept just one clean sheet this term as well as scoring in 22 successive league meetings with Watford, you could say that goals are almost guaranteed in this fixture. Not to forget that Troy Deeney has scored four times in his last five Premier League games, including each of the last three!
It will be a close one, but I feel Norwich will edge it. Having picked up a good point against Arsenal and missing out narrowly to Man City and Chelsea, Alex Neil has shown his quality and flexibility of which can earn them points no matter who the opposition may be. For me, Norwich have more Premier League quality and experience to run Watford ragged. I’m going for Norwich to win by three goals to one – Redmond, Bassong, Howson, and Ighalo on the scoresheet.