Watford vs Everton: Preview and Prediction

Watford vs Everton
England Premier League.
Date: Saturday, 10th December, 2016.
Kick-Off: 12:30 UK
Venue: Vicarage Road, Watford.

Walter Mazzarri is under tremendous pressure after Watford suffered their third defeat in the space of four games. However, there are no immediate relegation threat as they are 11th in the standings with a 7 point gap from the drop zone. They lost 3-1 to West Brom away from home last weekend, with the previous a 1-0 loss to Stoke City at home. The defeat to Stoke City was the first at home after going on a 4 match unbeaten run with 3 wins and a draw.

Everton fought back to earn a 1-1 draw against Manchester United last weekend. It was an evenly poised battle, but United took the lead through Zlatan Ibrahimovic capitalizing an error from Tofees’ goal-keeper Maarten Stekelenburg. The Red Devils had better chances to finish off the game, but Leighton Baines scored in the closing moments through a penalty to salvage a point for the home team.

The draw against United is the fourth league match in a row that Everton has failed to win. Moreover, they have only managed one win from their last 9, drawing 4 and losing 4. The Toffees are currently 8th in the league with 20 points, just 2 short of Watford at kick-off.

Watford vs Everton: Head-to-head stats

• Everton are unbeaten in the last 7 matches against Watford in all competitions.
• The two Premier League clashes of last season were draws, while Everton won in all of the previous 5 matches.
• Also, 6 of those 7 matches have seen over 2.5 goals with both teams scoring at least once.

Watford vs Everton: Prediction

It is clearly evident that Everton are struggling on all fronts at the moment. They had a good start to the season, but now that’s history. Everton can still boast of a good record at home and are unbeaten in their 7 matches so far. At the same time, they are terrible on the road and lost 4 of the last 5 with only a draw as positive result.

Watford is a capable side while playing in their home ground, despite having a poor record against Everton in recent years. The Hornets will be thinking that they have a real chance to end their terrible run here. But we cannot ignore the head-to-head record and most probable result here is a draw. To be on the safer side, we can back Watford on a handicap +1 to start with.