England Premier League
Saturday 23rd April 2022
Kick off at 3pm BST
Venue: Etihad Stadium
Match Preview:
And the wins keep coming, Manchester City know what they have to do if they want to win back to back titles and they cannot afford to drop any points with Liverpool chasing them. City beat Brighton in midweek with the final score finishing 3-0 but Pep Guardiola’s team went in at half time at 0-0 and there were certainly a few nerves around the Etihad. In the end it didn’t matter and City won their 24th game of the season and have 77 points, Liverpool are on 76.
City play on Saturday while Liverpool will face a Merseyside derby on Sunday. Guardiola’s side will be the huge odds on favourites to beat 19th placed Watford and they should have very little problems. City’s form has been good but not great by their standards with 11 points won from their last 15 after draws against Liverpool and Crystal Palace and both of those dropped points happened at home. Still the club have won 12 from 16 home games and no team has scored more than them at home, they are almost averaging 3 goals per game.
Watford look like they will be relegated as they are 7 points from safety which because of goal difference is effectively 8 points with just 18 left on the board. In effect the Hornets would have to win most of their remaining games and hope that Burnley or Everton lose almost all of their’s. Given that the club have only managed six wins this season their fate looks inevitable and the last team you would want to be facing in this situation is City away from home.
To add to the misery Watford have lost their last 3 games with their latest defeat coming against Brentford in a 2-1 home loss, that defeat came deep into injury time which just felt like a killer blow to the club. Away from home Roy Hodgson’s side have recorded two wins from their last five but their last game finished in a 2-0 loss at Liverpool.
Team News:
Manchester City: Nathan Ake has a ankle injury although it might not be too serious and he will be assessed for this match. John Stones has a slight muscle problem and will also be assessed. Kyle Walker is more of a doubt for this game with his ankle injury and is only 50/50 to make it.
Watford: Samuel Kalu has an ankle injury and is 50/50 to return for this game. Francisco Sierralta is 50/50 to make it back from a calf injury but has returned to training. Cucho could well miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury.
Man City vs Watford Head to Head:
Watford will not want to be reminded of what happened the last time the clubs played this fixture in 2019 as Manchester City beat them 8-0.
Manchester City have scored 21 goals against Watford in the last four meetings.
Manchester City have beaten Watford for the last 14 games in a row and Watford have not tasted victory against City in any game since 1989.
Man City vs Watford Prediction:
Of course for City there is the little detail of having a Champions League semi-final match against Real Madrid coming up next week, but this will not affect a team who are going for a league title. Maybe Guardiola would feel obliged to chop and change his side if City had struggled in the league this season but there is too much to play for. We all know that shocks can happen in football but we won’t be seeing that in this game and we expect a very good and comfortable win for the home side.
Watford will try but they will spend a long time without the ball as City will probe the area constantly and we expect Watford to have a bad day at the office. However Hodgson is a veteran manager who has seen it all before, witness the Liverpool game where Watford lost but put in a very good performance and were not embarrassed and he will be expecting his side to give it a try. City really can’t be backed to win at their price so we will look into different markets.
Man City vs Watford Betting Tips:
Half Time: Correct Score: Manchester City to be leading 1-0 or 2-0 at 3.00 and 4.33
Anytime goalscorer: Jack Grealish at 2.75
Anytime goalscorer: Phil Foden at 2.05
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