Manchester City will travel to the Vicarage road and face Watford in the late-night Saturday fixture of the gameweek 15 in the English Premier League. Manchester City is now just one point behind the league leaders Chelsea and one point ahead of Liverpool in the Premier League table.
Watford is just above the relegation zone with four wins, one draw, and nine losses in 14 Premier League matches. The Hornets have scored 19 goals and conceded 26. They have the third worse defensive record in the division. They suffered a 1-2 defeat against Chelsea in the midweek fixture and have now lost four out of the last five matches played.
Watford had 51% ball possession in the previous game. Claudio Ranieri’s men created 44 positional attacks in the game. They attempted 12 shots with a shot accuracy rate of 41.6%. Five shots were attempted from inside the opposition’s penalty box. The Hornets also attempted 23 passes into the opposition’s penalty area and made 53 recoveries in the opposition’s half. The above viz shows the pass type and pass ending location of Watford players. Full-backs Kiko Femenia, Danny Rose, and Masina attempted a combined total of 12 crosses. Emmanuel Dennis attempted seven smart passes in the match. He and Cleverley landed five passes each into the opposition’s penalty box.
Emmanuel Dennis has shown some goal-scoring form recently. The forward has scored three goals and provided two assists in the last three league games. His overall tally for the season is six goals and five assists. Defender Adam Masina passed the fitness test after he came off against Chelsea within the first 15 minutes of the match. Ismaila Sarr, Kwadwo Baah, Ben Foster, Nicolas N’Koulou and Peter Etebo will be out for the calendar year.
Manchester City won their fourth match in a row, and this was their tenth league victory of the season. They won a match away at Aston Villa by a scoreline of 2-1. These two goals have taken their overall goals tally to 29 goals, and City have conceded just eight goals so far. They have kept eight clean sheets this season and lead the stats chart.
The above viz shows that City created threats from the wide positions. Joao Cancelo featured from his featured right-back position and created the highest threat rate from passes. He attempted three smart passes and crosses each, and his five passes landed inside the opposition’s penalty box. Raheem Sterling landed nine passes into the opposition’s penalty box, and his teammate Riyad Mahrez was just one pass behind him.
Bernardo Silva’s form has been one of the main reasons behind the good run of an injury-hit Manchester City side. He has scored three goals in the last four games and taken his goal tally to five, which makes him the highest goal scorer in the team. Jack Grealish and Phil Foden were named among the substitutes in the midweek fixture, and they can be a part of the playing XI for this match. Ilkay Gundogan, Kyle Walker and John Stones remain a doubt for this match, while Kevin de Bruyne is also unlikely to feature. However, Aymeric Laporte will be available after suspension.
Watford will face a difficult test against an in-form Manchester City side. The home team hasn’t kept a clean sheet in the last 13 games, and there is a possibility that this unwanted record extends to 14 games. Chelsea and Liverpool play before City, and will look to put pressure on the defending champions.
