Watford welcome Luton Town to Vicarage Road in a Beds-Herts derby in race for promotion.
Victory could see Watford climb to tenth in the table, whereas a win could see Luton climb to fourth and into the play-off placings.
Team News
Imran Louza is ruled out for Watford after suffering a fibula injury in their midweek loss at Millwall.
Craig Cathcart (thigh) is a doubt and could face a late fitness test.
Christian Kabasele (hamstring), Francisco Sierralta (unspecified), Jeremy Ngakia, Rey Manaj (both hamstring), Kortney Hause (knee) and Tom Cleverley (Achilles) remain ruled out.
Luton have no fresh injury concerns after their midweek victory at Norwich but Pelly Ruddock-Mpanzu won’t be risked unless fit enough, following his recent return from a serious knee injury.
Reece Burke (hamstring) and James Shea (knee) both remain ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Watford have lost just one of their last 11 league meetings against Luton (W3, D7, L1).
- Luton have won just one of their last eight league visits to Vicarage Road (W1, D6, L1).
- Both meetings in this fixture in 2020-21 season were won by the team playing at home by 1-0 result.
- Two of Watford’s last five goals at home have been scored in the 34th minute.
- Carlton Morris has averaged 0.59 goals per 90 minutes in 15 league appearances for Luton this season.
Prediction
Following their positive win against Norwich last weekend, Watford just failed to get going against Millwall on Wednesday with awful defensive backtracking and marking as Tom Bradshaw ran riot in the first half, especially from set pieces.
Slaven Bilic though should be encouraged by the fact that his Hornets failed to concede in the second half yet they did waste chances to reduce their deficit, so there is work to be done here if they’re to get the win.
Luton meanwhile are in very strong form and delivered a solid all-round performance at Norwich in midweek, where excellent pressing and clinical finishing proved key to snatching a deserved win so can come into this derby full of belief.
Vicarage Road however has been a bogey ground for Nathan Jones’ Hatters but if they can get at a vulnerable Watford defence and take their chances, I do fancy them to nick this but Watford won’t make this easy by any stretch.
Prediction: Watford 1-2 Luton
Result: Watford 4-0 Luton
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