Manchester City made mince-meat of a Liverpool down to 10 men, handing out Jurgen Klopp’s worst managerial loss since 2006. With an array of attacking riches, Pep Guardiola’s men, on the wings of the 5-0 Liverpool thrashing, move on to their next Premier League clash against Watford at Vicarage Road. Before that, City have on their calendar, a UEFA Champions League outing away at Rotterdam against Dutch champions, Feyenoord. This could mean that there exists the possibility of some match fatigue going into the Watford clash. But with people like Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus, Kevin de Bruyne and Sergio Aguero attacking the way they are, the Hornets’ defense will have a real job on their hands. The City defense on the other hand were hardly tried after the 37th minute red-card ouster of Sadio Mane, but up to that time they were under serious pressure from the likes of Mohamed Salah, Firminio and Mane himself, with the Reds coming close to equalizing at that point.
The Watford attack has the potential to cause problems with likes of Andy Gray, Troy Deeney, Richarlison and Cleverley at their disposal. Troy Deeney, Watford’s top scorer in the 2016-17 season has been plagued with injury issues and played his first Premier League game this season under new manager Marco Silva, who doesn’t see eye-to-eye with the Hornets striker. Deeney was introduced only in the 84th minute in Saturday’s 0-2 away win over Southampton.
Watford are on a good run under Silva, not having lost a single of their 4 Premier League outings. The 7 goals they have scored have been distributed among six players, this even without contributions from their lead strikers Deeney and Gray.
A fatigued Manchester United could try out their creative mid-fielder Ilkay Gundogan for the first time this season. The 26-year old German underwent his third knee-surgery in four years and Guardiola could probably give him a brief playing time against Watford. Man City’s £45 million signing from Monaco, Bernardo Silva, was rested in the Liverpool game probably with an eye on the coming mid-week European outing against Feyenoord. But he could well feature in the weekend fixture against Watford and so could some of the others who were benched last weekend – winger Leroy Sane and central defender Eliaquim Mangala.
Man City now lead the table with 10 points for the first time this season, edging out Manchester United from the top spot on goal differences. Watford are on the 4th spot with 8 points. City are huge favorites to win the weekend clash at Vicarage Road with odds going at 1/4 and while for a Watford win it’s 11/1. For a draw, the odds read at 9/2. Despite the huge qualitative gap on paper between the two sides, the going for the formidable visitors may not turn to be as easy as it may look. The best odds for the “correct score” are 15/2 for a 0-3 Manchester City win.
Best Football Tip: Man City to win to Nil, Best odds 29/20 @ Coral