Watford FC v Hull City Betting Tips

These two sides are relatively new to the Premier League and are yet to ‘do a Stoke City’ and really establish themselves in the top flight. Survival is still the main aim for this duo and so this match could prove to be important come the end of the season.

Despite not winning their first Premier League match of the season, Watford have actually done pretty well so far this campaign and sit in ninth. Add into this the fact that they are unbeaten in their last three matches and you can certainly see how this Watford side pose a threat to most Premier League sides.

These three results came against teams who are likely to be in-and-around Watford at the end of the campaign and, if they record a win against Hull, then we can say that a return of eight points from a possible 12 is a job well done by Walter Mazzarri’s men.

Although the record shows Watford have lost half of their home matches this season, we must remember that those defeats were against Chelsea and Arsenal respectively. Any points against these two would have been a bonus. Since those two early season losses at Vicarage Road, the Hornets have won a ‘bonus’ match against Manchester United and drawn against Bournemouth.

Having achieved such positive results at home in recent weeks, Watford will certainly feel they are more than capable of beating their likely relegation-rivals on home turf. Starting with Hull on Saturday.

The Manager of the Month curse has hit Hull City hard. Since boss Mike Phelan won the award in August, his Hull side have lost all but one game (a draw against Burnley) and sit in the relegation zone with the worst goal difference in the division. Heaven knows where they would be had they not had a few good games in August.

Their midweek League Cup tie against Championship Bristol City offered a break from their Premier League struggles. Despite squad rotation being the usual theme of the League Cup, Mike Phelan chose to field a strong squad for the match as he looked to once again inject the winning feeling into his players.

It worked wonders as the Tigers ran out 2-1 winners and hopefully this will now give confidence to the players to take that form into their league fixtures. It would not surprise me if we saw the exact same starting XI take the field on Saturday afternoon.

After playing a 4-1-4-1 formation in the league for the last few weeks, Hull reverted back to their 3-5-2 setup which has worked well for them in the past. Going back to a system that the players have confidence in will also have made a massive difference.

With Watford (unfashionably) playing two strikers, I imagine Hull will field three central defenders to try and nullify that threat instead of the usual two.

Although Hull will have taken confidence from that League Cup victory against Bristol City, I think they will struggle at an in-form Watford side and I expect the Hornets to come out on top.

With odds-on offered on the home victory by all bookmakers, you need to look at other markets. I would suggest ‘Watford to Win and Over 1.5 Goals‘ at 6/5.

Hull City are pretty poor going forward and I think even this rather vulnerable Watford defence should cope. The Hornets will always pose a threat with the two strikers and it’s easy to see them inflicting damage on this leaky Tigers back-line.

A second market to look at here is booking points. This is an interesting option offered by Skybet and usually you can get some good value – as I did for the Old Firm match a few weeks ago.

Skybet give out 10 points for each yellow card in a match and 25 for a red, whilst a yellow turned into a red is 35.

The bets offered on the booking points market are ‘Under 35 points’, ‘Exactly 35-55 points’ and ‘Over 55 points’

Watford and Hull are at opposite ends of the disciplinary table. Watford are in second place with 24 yellow cards and one red whilst Hull City are third from bottom with 13 yellows and two reds. Neither team has had a player receive a yellow and red card in the same match.

The referee for this match is Jonathan Moss who is at the top of the referee’s disciplinary leader board by some way with 36 yellows and two reds dished out in seven matches.

This match looks like it could be a bit of a card fest, but I am not sure it will boil over into the ‘Over 55 points’ category. With this in mind I would certainly look at the middle bracket of ‘Exactly 35-55 points’ at a very nicely-priced 2/1.

See more tips here.