There are two English Premier League games taking place on Tuesday the 21st of July, the first of which is between Watford and Manchester City at Vicarage Road.
The hosts are currently in 17th place on 34 points, 3 points clear of Bournemouth and Aston Villa. Manchester City are second in the table and that is where they will finish this season regardless of results.
Watford come into the game having sacked their manager Nigel Pearson on Sunday. It seems like a strange decision with only two matches remaining in the Premier League season. Pearson did well to move Watford from the bottom of the table to the brink of safety.
Prior to the 3-1 defeat at West Ham United on Friday night, Watford had enjoyed two good victories over Norwich City and Newcastle United at home. Both games finished 2-1 in favour of The Hornets but they are the only wins for Watford in their last 8 Premier League matches.
However, their home record is good and trends show in their 12 most recent home matches in all competitions, Watford have been undefeated 10 times. They have been scoring plenty of goals and Watford have scored at least 2 goals in 8 of their last 11 home matches in all competitions. The area in which they need to improve is defensively and in 7 of Watford's last 9 home games in all competitions both teams scored.
In fact, Watford have conceded at least one goal in each of their last 8 Premier League games.
Manchester City will be extremely disappointed to have lost in the semi-final of the FA Cup against Arsenal on the weekend. They were the favourites to win the competition but could not break through the Arsenal defence and lost the game 2-0. That was Manchester City’s first defeat in their last 4 games having enjoyed 3 straight victories against Newcastle United, Bournemouth and Brighton in the Premier League.
However, the defeats against Arsenal in the FA Cup and Southampton in the Premier League sums up Manchester City’s season. They still have the ability to take teams apart just as they did in the games against Newcastle United and Brighton but Manchester City remain beatable.
Nonetheless, they will be feeling confident of taking maximum points in this game having won each of the last 12 meetings with Watford.
Team news and Watford will be without Etienne Capoue, Gerard Deulofeu, Daryl Janmaat and Isaac Success who are injured. It will be interesting to see what changes are made to the starting XI following the dismissal of Pearson.
Manchester City are without Sergio Aguero and Claudio Bravo. There are sure to be a few changes from the team that lost against Arsenal on the weekend but Pep Guardiola will want to bounce back with a victory.
This is a game which should see both teams scoring but Manchester City have a great recent record over Watford. Expect to see the visitors come out on top scoring a few goals in the process.