Wednesday, 18 April 2018

Premier League - Watford vs Crystal Palace - 21st April

This weekend, the relegation battle takes another interesting turn as Watford play host to Crystal Palace. Can the Hornets take out the Eagles? With the away side’ woes, we wouldn’t bet on a performance that Watford fans have waited a little too long to receive. 
 
Home News

With one win in six, including four loses out of five, Watford need a good result – fast. The drop-off in performance of the likes of Richarlison, Will Hughes, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Adrian Mariappa has been alarming. Coincided with the poor form of the likes of Roberto Pereyra and Troy Deeney, and its’ easy to see why Hornets fans have valid concerns.

They come into this one with a banged-up squad, too. The likes of Gerard Deulofeu will miss out, as will Nathaniel Chalobah and Tom Cleverley. For Watford, any kind of positive result would be accepted given their middling form. 
 
Away News

Meanwhile, Palace are flying after their 3-2 win in the derby with Brighton and Hove Albion. With Christian Benteke finally fit again, it’s the loss of the likes of Bakary Sako and Scott Dann that has hurt them the most.

At the moment, it would be hard to call the Palace team bar one thing: when Wilfried Zaha is fit, they play much better. They’ve lost all ten games this season that the Ivorian has not started, which has major complications for them if he misses any of the run-in.

If Zaha starts, don’t expect anything other than another impressive performance. 
 
Verdict

We expect Watford to get something here. They look like a side that needs the season to end, but Palace are poor away from home. We would expect more from the home side, and a performance against a Palace side with a phobia of away days would be a good place to start.

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