In Brief – A Watford Mini Preview
Sep 28th, 2018 by 'holic
Watford are fourth in the Premier League having won four and drawn one of their first six matches. The sole defeat was against Manchester United and those wins included a 2-1 defeat of the Middlesex Nomads. They are probably the strongest side we will face until the visit of Liverpool in November. This is a test of our six wins on the bounce form, and one that if we pass it will lift us above the Hertfordshire club.
With Sokratis Papastathopoulos being passed fit is unlikely that we will see any changes to the starting eleven that saw off Everton last week. If that team can start the match playing with pace, accuracy, and belief then we should be good enough for a seventh straight win. Anything less would sow the seeds of doubt.
We know what to expect from Watford. Our central defenders will face the usual physical threat from Deeney and Gray. Janmaat’s knee injury means there will be a change to their starting eleven for the first time this season in the league.
The ‘holic pound
The bookies strongly favour 2-1 to The Arsenal but I’m going to look for better value. If we are at it from the kick-off I think we have a 3-1 win in us at 21/2, and I’m on that.
With apologies once again for the enforced brevity of the preview allow me to wish you all a happy and healthy weekend.
Have a great one, ‘holics.
54 Responses to “In Brief – A Watford Mini Preview”
Watford have caused us more problems than a club of their limited ability should in recent seasons and they will definitely be at it tomorrow. However I like Holic’s prediction and think 3-1 to us will be very close to the final result. As Holic says tomorrow will give us another benchmark of our progress. I hope we can continue to improve although if we play the slowcoach Xhaka we will probably start too slowly against a very quick and physical team
Here’s another piece of useless information.
We haven’t lost a Saturday 3pm kick off league game since Villa defeat in Aug 2013.
Played 20 since,won 18 drawn 2.
Fine mini-preview, Guvna.
We will have to work our socks off, match the physicality of our opponents, take our chances and lose the nerves at the back if we are going to win tomorrow. I certainly hope we can do that.
Go WIN, Arsenal!
I’m not one to be swayed by media influences, but as can be seen with the fact the Tories haven’t been laughed out of government, the media is a powerful force and it’s relentless message can chip away at the most resilient mind.
The club are being portrayed as a mess, amateurish and lacking in ambition. The Ramsey contract news only adds to that view. I don’t get why it was leaked (must’ve been Ramseys people), but for the club to say categorically they won’t be offering any type of deal is weird to me. I just don’t get it.
As for Watford, this was a team we struggled with under Wenger and I will take any kind of win.
UTA
Thanks for the preview Guvnor.
Good news that Sokratis is fit.
It’ll probably be the same XI but
I wonder if Ramsey will start.
UE will know his state of mind
best hopefully, perhaps the
situation will motivate him
although that didn’t seem the
case with Alexis last year.
Anyway, I’d happily take another
2-0 this week.
Always wanted a mini, me. 😉
Hasn’t Xhaka been jettisoned yet?
There can be little uncertainty about that 3-1 outcome really. I just hope you got the best odds, ‘holic. 4-1 would be the only logical alternative. May I add that Watford suck?
Watford may suck in one way I would not want to jinx us with too many silly words. They are fully capable of beating Arsenal as they have very recently. This is a test to see if we have progressed. Cold light of day, etc.
Good to hear that what ails Mrs ‘H is mendable and mending. Hope the convalescence progresses smoothly.
Short and sweet preview. Watford will be a handful on recent form but we should have the quality for 3-1 and land the ‘Holic pound.
Although we have lost two of our last three league games against Watford those were also our only Premier league defeats by them in 10 games.
bt8b@8: there has never been a 4-1 between these two teams.
Clive@2: only 20 Saturday 3pm kickoffs since Aug 2013. Says a lot in itself.
Cheers Holic !
Far too much work lately but still looking in if not contributing.
Clive, 20 Sat 3.00pms since 2013 -incredible….
Ned, there will be a 4-1 scoreline today. I saw True Storey yesterday and that was / is my prediction. Quite happy with a 3-1 for Holic’s benefit ?
In the continued temporary absence of my ST I am actually going to be there today, courtesy of one of the bar’s finest ??
Manure getting ‘hammered’, happy days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J6P7YdfPBU
Come oooooon!
Starting XI:
Cech
Bellerin, Mustafa, Holding, Monreal
Torreira, Xhaka
Oil, Ramsey, Aubameyang
Lacazette.
Bench:
Leno, Lichtsteiner, Kolasinac, Guendouzi, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Welbeck
Sokratis must not be fit
That’s Mustafa Centrehalfinthejanuarywindow.
Pity about Sokratis but anyway
let’s have a good start
Come on you Gunners!!!
Oh and Manure hahahahaha
Come on Arsenal! A decent first half performance please lads!!!
Another pen not given!
Laca too honest, didn’t go down when fouled in the box. Lot to learn from teams like Watford etc who know how to take advantage of such situations.
A penalty for me too
We can’t be letting people have
free shits from there. Lucky he’s
twanged it
Come on Laca sitter missed there!!!!
What a bloomer from Laca. We should have been two up by now.
bravely done by Cech
silly foul to give away
Cech is done, must be his hammy. Leno to make his debut. Cech will be out for some weeks.
Pity for Cech, he’s been playing
well
I hope we’re going to have a 2nd
half purple patch soon
Good save by the new keeper, his first in the league. He is being put under pressure and would be interesting to see how he responds.
Doesn’t look like Laca’s day.
Maybe Iwobi for Ramsey for some width?
We need to change something
up front, Auba looks out of
sorts and Laca er
I feel we’re a Watford scrappy
set piece goal away from trouble
silly booking
iwobi for Ramsey it is
We have no game plan by the looks of things do we not train these in training?
Agree OM, if we don’t get the first goal, Watford could get lucky. Auba is so light weight that he, like Ozil, avoids any sort of contact. Can’t have too many of the same type. Time to bring on Welbeck.
We look awful in all honesty ….
At the moment happy with a point
Maybe Welbz up front can shake it up a bit
Taylor and Deeney are cunts, big time
The goal scorer is on for Auba but we look really shaky.
Deeny follows through on Torreira and the commentators say Torreira should have been carded. The bias is sickening.
GET INNNNN LLLAAAAAACCCCCAAAAA!!!!!
Get in!!!!
get in!!!!
Now for the clean SHIT
Correction an own goal 😀
Own goal, doesn’t matter how they come.
ksn
Too right!
Siololololololoooooooo
Arsenal Goal!
Ozil, great passing and movement from Iwobi, Laca and Ozil.
Great stuff, well done boys
2-0!!!!
Ozil
Get The F…IN!!!
..and F Off Deeney!
The manager is so animated on the sidelines that he looks like he is playing?
Second clean sheet after a not too convincing performance but we were definitely the better than Watford and the win is deserved. Had Laca had his shooting boots on we would have thrashed them.
la la la la
la la la la
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Redundant ‘the’ in the previous post.