Saturday Premier League – Watford vs Crystal Palace preview

April 21st 2018 15:00 – Vicarage Road

Recent Form (League)

Watford: LLDLL

Crystal Palace: LWLDW

A woefully out of form Watford welcome relegation battling Crystal Palace to Vicarage Road on Saturday, this will be the only Premier League match played on Saturday at 3pm BST. The last time that happened was on 7th March, 2015, when Tottenham Hotspur won 2-1 at Queens Park Rangers.

Watford are in the middle of a horrendous run, collecting only one point from the last 15 available to them. That point was came in a recent home draw with Bournemouth, which also was the only point collected in their last five home games.

Good value to score at home, The Hornets have put together a 12 match scoring streak at home this season in the Premier League, all the good work attacking wise is more often than not undone by a defence that has conceded an average of 1.76 goals per game at home this season. In total, Watford have conceded at least one goal in 76% of their home league games, so it’s not hard to see why the team seems to be in freefall at the moment and still mathematically not safe from relegation. In fact, their current form is a mirror image of the end of last season when they lost six-straight games before heading into the end of season holidays.

Crystal Palace have plenty still to play for, and a win would put them level with their opponents and a step closer towards Premier League survival.

It is no coincidence that the upturn in both performance and results for Palace has coincided with the return from injury of Wilfried Zaha. He has scored in his last two Premier League appearances and is aiming to score in three in a row for the first time.

Roy Hodgson’s men seem to have the same issue as their hosts, a strong attacking line-up with the likes of Zaha and Luka Milivojevic but at the same time, the defence has struggled. It is no surprise that Palace have one of the worst defences in this league but still have conceded less than Watford, but conversely have not scored as many either as both clubs sit on -18 goal difference.

Palace’s record against bottom-half clubs in the league makes for good reading, having gone unbeaten in 12 games. With the added incentive of drawing level with Watford, this record should continue as The Eagles get within touching distance of Premier League safety.

Prediction:

The last league meetings have heavily favoured Crystal Palace who have won three of the last five. And with Watford already reaching for the beach towels, I expect the Eagles to make it four wins out of six games.

The away win is available at 6/4 with Betfair.