Slaven Bilic begins life as Watford manager with a tricky away encounter against Stoke City at BET365 Stadium.
Victory would lift Stoke up to 10th in the table, whereas Watford can go seventh with a win and one point outside of the play-off spots.
Team News
Josef Bursik is a doubt for Stoke after he withdrew from England Under-21s’ friendly win over Germany due to personal reasons.
Jordan Thompson (head) faces a late fitness test but Jacob Brown (thigh) remains absent.
Watford could be without Joao Pedro after the forward suffered a calf injury during the international break.
William Troost-Ekong, Jeremy Ngakia, Rey Manaj (all hamstring), Tom Dele-Bashiru (knee) and Tom Cleverley (Achilles) are ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Stoke have won just one of eight previous Championship meetings against Watford (W1, D2, L5).
- Watford have avoided defeat in four Championshp visits to Stoke (W3, D1).
- Stoke haven’t kept a clean sheet in seven of eight previous Championship clashes against Watford.
- Lewis Baker has been involved in six goals this season for Stoke – in which he produced four goals and two assists in 10 league appearances.
- Joao Pedro and Ken Sema have provided two goals and assists apiece for Watford this season.
Prediction
Despite getting completely outplayed at QPR last time out, Stoke delivered an excellent defensive display to snatch a deserved point, particularly aided by excellent goalkeeping from Bursik who proved crucial and will now be eager to do his family proud here after his father’s death.
Watford meanwhile have undergone a surprise change of manager during the international break, so it will be interesting to see what Bilic to shore up their leaky defence because they certainly have a good attack but their scrappy defending cost them a win against Sunderland a fortnight ago.
Stoke though will need to attack more than they did at QPR if they want to win, otherwise Watford surely will take the victory if they can deliver another strong attacking effort and defend more solidly.
Prediction: Stoke 1-2 Watford