Watford FC vs Liverpool
An old friend has stepped back into the English football limelight this week and he’s ready to pit his new side against the 2020 Champions.
The Premier League fixture between Watford and Liverpool brings together two managers who have already won this league, but they have rather different priorities now.
Jurgen Klopp is straining every sinew to lift his Liverpool side to even greater heights, which they will need to reach to surpass Manchester City once again. Meanwhile, down at Vicarage Road, incoming boss Claudio Ranieri has the task of keeping Watford in the Premier League.
He had a similar objective when he took over at Leicester City in 2015, but he stunned the whole of the football world when he guided them to an historic Premier League triumph in 2016.
Here at SBOTOP, we’re predicting an away win of course, but Ranieri has upset odds of 5,001.00 before when the Foxes were priced that high to win the Premier League. So it might be best to expect the unexpected!
Talking Points
Can Ranieri rally the Hornets?
To most of us in the outside world, the sacking of Xisco Munoz after just seven games of Watford’s first season back in the top-flight seems hasty at best and at worst, totally insane.
Last time out, Watford put in a limp performance to lose 1-0 away to Leeds United and that in itself is hardly a sacking offence.
With seven points from their opening seven games, the Hornets sit in 15th place and the vast majority of their fans would bite your hands off if you offered that in May 2022.
Nobody wins the league or gets relegated in October, but that doesn’t deter the Pozzo family – who have now appointed their 13th “permanent” manager since they took over at the North London Club in 2012.
Interestingly, one of the first actions the family took was to sack Sean Dyche, who has kept Burnley relatively comfortably at the top table for the last six seasons.
They hope their new man can emulate the success he had at the King Power Stadium or at least some of it. But at Leicester, Ranieri had Jamie Vardy, Kasper Schmeichel, Riyad Mahrez, and N’Golo Kante in his team.
At Watford, he inherits Ben Foster, Josh King, Moussa Sissoko, and Tom Cleverley – some very good professionals but without anything like the same potential.
In the Tinkerman’s first outing, no one really expects the Premier League 2021 highlights to be anything other than a game of defence versus attack, but the Hornets will carve out a few openings during the 90 minutes.
And when they do, they must take their chance. Ismaila Sarr is the most likely Watford player to get on the scoresheet with four league goals already to his name.
Liverpool’s strikers banging in form
After playing out a 2-2 draw with Manchester City in the last time out, the Reds are second in the league table which is a point behind Chelsea and one ahead of the two Manchester clubs.
Mohamed Salah scored a brilliant individual goal to put Liverpool 2-1 ahead in the match of the season so far, and to run the favourites so close shows how ready Klopp’s side is to challenge for the title once again.
It was Salah’s sixth of the season and he is playing alongside a rejuvenated Sadio Mane who has four goals so far in this campaign, and the ever lively Diogo Jota who has three.
Wing-back Trent Alexander-Arnold is back to his best form and that makes Liverpool’s front three all the more dangerous, while the return in defence of Virgil van Dijk means the team look more like the champions on 2020.
History
Liverpool have won 12 of the 16 meetings between these two sides, drawing three and losing just the once, but that was the last encounter they had with the Hornets.
Sarr was on target twice as Watford stunned the Reds on the last day of February 2020 to inflict a first defeat on Klopp’s side as they marched to the title.
In terms of recent form, the Reds are unbeaten in nine away games while Watford have lost four of their last six matches.
Betting Tip
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Watford FC vs Liverpool | Total Goals 2-3 @ 2.10 |
| October 16, 19:30 (GMT+8) |
As expected the pre-match Premier League 2021 betting odds reckon Klopp’s boys will have too much quality for Ranieri’s new charges.
The Reds are at 1.32 to win, with their hosts at a price of 7.52 and the draw is at 5.03. The most likely scoreline at odds of 6.03 is a 2-0 victory for Liverpool.
A SHORT EXPLANATION ON HOW OUR ( ) BETS ARE WORTH: |
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|---|---|---|---|
 = €20 (Highly confident) |
= €10 (CONFIDENT) |
= €5 (SOMEWHAT CONFIDENT) |
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Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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