Watford vs Manchester City 22/07/20

22 July 2020

Watford will entertain Manchester City at Vicarage Road this midweek in the penultimate round of the 2019/20 Premier League season.

The hosts harbor a three-point lead over relegation-threatened Aston Villa with two league fixtures left to go but go into this clash on the back of a 3-1 away loss to West Ham. That now means that none of Watford’s last six Premier League games has ended in a draw (W2, L4), with the previous five all witnessing the winner on the day score at least two goals. Despite racking up two 2-1 home wins ahead of this encounter, the ‘Hornets’ face a formidable challenge of a Manchester City side they’ve lost to in all four of their last top-flight H2Hs held at this venue. Notably, each of those four clashes produced over 2.5 goals, which has been true in five of their last six Premier League home matches.

Meanwhile, the visitors have picked up three consecutive Premier League victories in the build-up to this trip, with two of them coming via the identical 5-0 scoreline. But, the Sky Blues have endured mixed fortunes away from home this calendar year (W4, L4), with six of those results (win/loss) seeing the winner on the day keep a clean sheet. Curiously, though, Pep Guardiola’s men have failed to win a single point from six Premier League away games in which they conceded the opening goal. Still, Manchester City remain the only side in England’s top-flight to smash a 40-goal barrier away from home, having netted an average of 2.27 goals per league trip.