Premier League: Watford vs Manchester City preview

Premier League leaders Manchester City are looking to extend their winning streak to seven matches when they visit Watford at Vicarage Road on Tuesday. Last season the Citizens secured an emphatic 6-0 triumph in this fixture, with a hat-trick from Sergio Aguero and goals from Nicolas Otamendi, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling. They won the reverse fixture 3-1, with Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero on the score sheet once again. In fact, Manchester City have won the last eight direct matches against Watford in all competitions and scored an impressive sixteen goals in the last four. The last time Watford beat Man City was in 1989.

Watford are going through a pretty rough patch of road, they had a great start to the season with five consecutive wins in all competitions but now they have won just two of the last eleven. They have lost three of their last four Premier League matches, including the 2-0 defeat at Leicester last week. Moreover, they have scored just one goal in the last four Premier League matches, in the 1-1 draw at struggling Southampton. Etienne Capoue got sent off in last week's match at Leicester and will be suspended for this game, Adalberto Penaranda and Tom Cleverley are not yet fit for a first-team match, while Daryl Janmaat is an injury doubt.

Manchester City are just cruising, they have won their last six Premier League matches, are still unbeaten since the start of the season and have conceded just six goals in fourteen matches. Last week the Citizens secured a 3-1 home victory over Bournemouth with goals from Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling and Ilkay Gundogan, just a few days after the 2-2 draw at Lyon in the Champions League. Pep Guardiola has rotated some of the players between these two fixtures, and he also has to deal with some sort of an injury crisis as Claudio Bravo, Kevin De Bruyne, Eliaquim Mangala and Benjamin Mendy are all sidelined and Sergio Aguero is a fresh injury doubt.

Probable line-ups:

Watford: Foster - Femenia, Cathcart, Kabasele, Masina - Doucoure, Chalobah - Hughes, Pereyra - Deeney, Deulofeu

Man City: Ederson - Walker, Stones, Laporte, Delph - B. Silva, Fernandinho, D. Silva - Sterling, Jesus, Sane

My prediction: Manchester City to win 4-0, Watford can't really do much to oppose Guardiola's football machine.

Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:

Watford win - 11.00
Draw - 6.00
Man City win - 1.30

Upcoming Sporting Events