Watford’s away form continued to deteriorate as they went down 2-0 to a lacklustre Manchester City. After their thrilling 3-2 win over Everton last weekend, Watford were expected to put up a better fight at the Etihad Stadium. However, Walter Mazzarri’s men squandered many chances to equalise and were sucker-punched when a late David Silva strike killed off the game.
They next face Sunderland, who have been struggling this season and are currently keeping the worst home record this season, collecting only 7 points from 8 games.
Their record against Watford has been very good, though. Watford have lost four of their last five league trips to the Stadium of Light and this might be the ideal chance to improve the record.
Defence
Although Watford were on the losing side in the midweek game, both the teams looked quite rusty and are capable of doing much better. Hence, we expect the team to remain mostly unchanged against Sunderland.
Heurelho Gomes will take his position under the bar once again. Although his ball distribution looked quite dodgy at times in the City game, he made some quality stops to keep his team in the game.
The back four is likely to remain the same. Janmaat will take his place as the right-back. He was quite solid in the defence against City although couldn’t make many offensive contributions. We expect Kaboul to start in the centre-back position in the place of Prodl. The Austrian looked devoid of confidence in the last match and struggled all match to cope with City’s attack.
Britos was solid at the centre and is likely to keep his place. The left-back position of Watford is quite irreplaceable at the moment. Holebas has been brilliant there.
Midfield
The anchor position is likely to be held by Capoue and Guedioura. While Capoue looked quite solid against City, he lacked an impact when going forward. Guedioura, on the other hand, looked seriously off pace. Mazzarri, however, is expected to give him another nod against Sunderland.
The flank should be taken by Amrabat and Zuniga. Pereyra picked up his fifth booking against City and will have to sit out this game. Amrabat looked decent against City and has the pace in the wide areas.
Attack
Mazzarri didn’t get the best of service from his forward duo Ighalo and Sinclair. Both the forwards lacked the edge and urgency. However, there’s no denying their quality and they are likely to start at Stadium of Light.
