Watford v Stoke City Betting Tips

Two teams likely to be in and around mid-table go head-to-head on Sunday afternoon as Watford play host to Stoke City.

Watford are actually doing quite well so far this season and currently sit a lofty eighth in the league. The Hornets are on a decent run at the moment and have lost just once in their last six matches.

Goals are certainly the best aspect of The Hornets’ play with their ‘Goals For’ column reading 17 which rivals or betters most of the teams around them. This of course is thanks to Watford’s quite attacking style of play. Not only do they play an old-school 4-4-2 formation which allows striker Troy Deeney along with exciting attacking midfielder Roberto Pereyra, they have exciting wingers and full backs to provide width and get crosses in. Additionally, they have found a midfield scoring machine in the form of Etienne Capoue who is Watford’s top scorer with five goals.

This is demonstrated by the fact that, Walter Mazzarri’s side have only failed to find the back of the net on two occasions in the Premier League this season.

Unfortunately, this rather attacking style of play means that they are vulnerable at the back with their defence hardly the most solid looking – as we saw in their recent 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Liverpool. Their stat of 20 goals conceded is the worst inside the top-10.

Whilst they obviously score a high number of goals, this leaky defence prevents them from making any sort of sustainable push for the European spots.

However, going into this match at Vicarage Road they will be confident. They have only lost twice on home turf this season and even those matches were against big clubs Chelsea and Arsenal. Going up against a team who are similar to themselves in the form of Stoke City will give The Hornets the belief that they can pull off a victory.

Just like last year, Stoke City had a dreadful start to this season and it looked like they could be in a spot of bother until a few weeks ago. Now however, they are one of the form sides in the league with just one defeat in their last seven matches which included a three-match winning streak.

The Potters have always been a solid defensive unit ever since their promotion in 2008 and it is why so many newly-promoted teams aspire to be like them. Also, not only do they have a good back-line, their attack is also pretty dangerous with the likes of Wilfried Bony, Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic always a threat whilst diminutive midfielder Joe Allen has proved to be one of the signings of the summer with continued impressive performances in Stoke’s midfield.

However, Mark Hughes will have been disappointed by the inept performance in their defeat to Bournemouth last weekend. The fact they conceded an easy goal from a set piece is very unlike them and the Welshman will hope to be better against Watford. Indeed, with The Hornets being vulnerable at the back, Stoke will feel they have a good chance on Sunday.

Additionally, despite usually being famed for their home form, The Potters look good away from the Bet365 Stadium at the moment with no defeats in three.

With the home team being good on their own patch and the away team looking good on the road, this match is quite hard to predict. I think we are likely to see a draw here but, at the same time, the home side could pull off a result. With this in mind, the option of ‘Draw – Watford Win No Bet’, at 10/11, is the way to go.

As previously mentioned, Watford are good going forward and you’d certainly expect them to score in this match. Having said this, they are vulnerable at the back. In addition, Stoke have scored in 83% of their away games this season so I think the ‘Both Teams to Score’ option at 5/6 is very good value here.

Furthermore, both teams have scored in five out of six when Watford have played at home this season.

Another eye-catching selection is ‘2nd Half to be the Highest Scoring Half’ at 23/20. The Hornets score a big 64.7% of their goals in the second period whilst Stoke City’s percentage is even higher at 69.2%. This gives an overall percentage of just under 67 and thus a price of 23/20, when the stats say this, is very generous.

See more tips here.