Watford welcome Burnley to Vicarage Road in a relegation six-pointer showdown in the fight for Premier League survival.
Victory would see Watford stay 19th but move to within six points of safety, whereas Burnley can climb to 16th for at least a few hours with a win and all but mathematically end Watford’s survival dreams.
Team News
Samuel Kalu could return for Watford after recovering from an ankle injury.
Juraj Kucka, Kiko Femenia (both knock) and Kwadwo Baah (fitness) are doubts but Francisco Sierralta (calf) and Cucho Hernandez (hamstring) remain absent.
Burnley could be without Maxwel Cornet as he continues to recover from a knee injury which forced him to miss last Sunday’s win over Wolves.
Jay Rodriguez (calf) is a doubt but Erik Pieters, Ben Mee (both knee) Ashley Westwood (ankle) and Johann Berg Gudmundsson (calf) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- Watford have claimed eight points from their last nine meetings against Burnley (W2, D2, L5).
- Burnley have claimed seven points from their four previous Premier League visits to Vicarage Road (W2, D1, L1).
- The visiting Clarets have kept clean sheets in their last four meetings against Watford (W2, D2).
- No player within the three teams currently sat in the relegation zone has been fouled more times this season than Watford’s Emmanuel Dennis, who had been fouled 53 times.
- Four of Burnley’s last six yellow cards picked up away from Turf Moor have been shown after half-time.
Prediction
With relegation looking increasingly likely, this clash is now a must-win for Watford who need a much better defence if they’re to stand any chance, especially after repeated exposure in last weekend’s thrashing at Manchester City with poor marking of various players like Gabriel Jesus for example.
Roy Hodgson though can take heart from how his team responded when able to get on the counter-attack with one well-deserved goal, which surely will lift morale within their attack because they could do with scoring first here to get themselves in a good position to starve off relegation one more week.
Burnley meanwhile are finally out of the relegation zone but they can’t afford to lift their foot off the gas and risk giving the initiative back to Everton, especially after how clinical they were in their win over Wolves with great switch from defence to attack once completed interceptions with great attacking movement.
Now if the Clarets can bring that quality to Vicarage Road and can quickly expose fragilities within Watford’s defence with clinical quick attacks, this surely has to be a routine away win no matter how hard Watford try to give themselves hope of survival.
Prediction: Watford 1-2 Burnley
Result: Watford 1-2 Burnley
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