Watford vs Manchester City

Manchester City will be looking to stay on the upwards trajectory when they take on lowly Watford at Vicarage Road in a seemingly winnable Premier League fixture.

Successive Premier League defeats for Watford, including a 2-1 home loss to Chelsea in midweek, have left them hovering just three points clear of the drop zone. Indeed, things do not look well for the ‘Hornets,’ who have failed to keep a clean sheet in each of their 14 league matches this season, conceding an average of 1.85 goals per game. To avoid being sucked into an early relegation battle, Watford will have to defy their utterly disappointing all-time Premier League record against reigning champions, with no side lamenting a worse loss percentage in such fixtures than them (73%). Furthermore, they have yet to beat Man City in the Premier League, having lost ten of their 12 H2Hs since the competition was rebranded in 1992 (D2).

In the meantime, Manchester City have hit the ground running in the Premier League since a painful 2-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace in late October, putting together four straight wins in the competition since. Additionally, since a narrow 1-0 loss to Tottenham on the opening matchday of the season, the ‘Citizens’ have gone unbeaten in their last six top-flight away games (W5, D1), with three of their five victories in that run being accompanied by a clean sheet. By extension, Pep Guardiola’s men have only lost two of their last 21 Premier League matches on hostile turf (W17, D2). Since the Spaniard arrived at the helm in 2016, Man City have won more Premier League away fixtures (72) and registered more points on the road (227) than any other side. Guardiola has won each of his nine managerial encounters against Watford across all competitions by an aggregate score of 39-3.