Racing Post

City slickers

Watford v Man City,

By Joe Casey

CLAUDIO RANIERI’S seven games in charge of Watford have seen two shock highscoring wins and five defeats. The latter looks much more likely when champions Manchester City visit Vicarage Road.

The Citizens have won their last 13 meetings with Watford and the last time the Hornets got the better of City was March 1989. The last three occasions these sides have faced off, Pep Guardiola’s men have won by an aggregate score of 18-0.

There were plenty of positives in Watford’s performance against Chelsea as they went down gallantly 2-1 to the league leaders, but to back that display up four days later is quite an ask given the opponents at hand.

Claudio Ranieri’s side also have an ever-growing number of players out with injuries.

The fixture list has been relentless for the Hornets and they are certain to be targeting the four games after this one in their pursuit of 40 points, with Brentford, Burnley, Crystal Palace and Wolves next on the agenda.

City have bounced back from their surprise defeat to Palace with six wins on the spin in all competitions, scoring 15 times.

Aston Villa did a good job of containing the Citizens for most of their midweek clash but a moment of magic from Bernardo Silva proved the difference between the two teams.

The worry for Watford is that that level of quality is evident throughout this squad, with nine City players having scored two or more league goals already this season.

In their 21 games in all competitions City have had 17 different goalscorers.

Even without Ferran Torres, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Kyle Walker, and with Phil Foden and Jack Grealish fit enough only for the bench, the Citizens were comfortable enough victors against Villa.

In this tie, Guardiola may not rotate as much as he typically would before a Tuesday Champions League tie as City are already guaranteed to top their group, rendering their meeting with Leipzig a dead rubber.

Given the recent record between these two sides and the Hornets’ injury issues, it’s hard to see anything but a comfortable City win. Watford have produced some upsets this season, but those were against an injury-plagued Everton side and a Manchester United team in major transition.

It’s difficult to see Guardiola’s winning machine having similar issues and City are taken to defy a two-goal handicap.

BEST BET Manchester City -2 1pt 13-8 general

PREMIER LEAGUE WEST HAM V CHELSEA

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2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

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