FOOTBALL BOFFIN Ross Casey (@Rosscasey24) previews Boxing Day's Premier League showdown between Watford and Chelsea at Vicarage Road.
Watford v Chelsea | Wednesday 26th December 2018, 19:30 | Sky Sports
After losing their home unbeaten statistic for the whole season in a shocking 1-0 loss to Leicester at Stamford Bridge last weekend, Chelsea will be desperate to impress here on the road.
Despite that surprising defeat, The Blues have been made odds on favourites to put that behind them here with a 7/9 best price available with Unibet. This seems a bit short to me, considering Chelsea are going through a tough spell – losing three of their last six league games and they have hardly got a great recent record in this fixture – they have failed to win two of their last three matches at Vicarage Road!
Watford come into this fixture on the back of a three match unbeaten run, including two back to back wins over Cardiff and West Ham. The bookies are offering a best price of 17/4 (bet365) that they make it a hat-trick here.
Watford
Watford were on a poor run of form of late, failing to win six in a row before their excellent victories over Cardiff and West Ham.
That will give them plenty of confidence for this match, as will the fact that only six sides have scored more goals at home than Watford in the Premier League, and against a Chelsea side that have conceded in three of their last four games, they may well fancy getting on the scoresheet.
You can get 14/19 on Both Teams To Score, or if you are more impressed with the fact that Watford are unbeaten in three and are facing a Chelsea side who have lost last weekend, you can get Watford to win and over 2.5 goals at 13/2!
Chelsea
Last weekend was only the fourth time this season that Chelsea have failed to score a goal, so against a Watford side that have kept just two clean sheets this season, surely they will find the net.
Quite who though is difficult to predict, Alvaro Morata only has five league goals this season and the rest of their goals have been pretty widespread throughout the squad. Eden Hazard is their top scorer in the Premier League with odds of 5/4 and considering he takes penalties and the last four Premier League meetings between these sides have featured 21 goals, that looks a decent price.
The betting angle
I certainly think Chelsea are no value at an odds on price, so I will be backing both teams to score and Eden Hazard to net in separate bets here.
Best Bets
Watford v Chelsea – Both Teams To Score (7/9 Unibet)
Watford v Chelsea – Eden Hazard anytime (5/4 BetVictor)
