FOOTBALL journalist Adam Goodwin (@AGJournalism) takes a look at Saturday evening's contest between Man City and Watford in the Premier League.
Man City v Watford | Saturday 9th March 2019, 17:30 | BT Sport
Whilst they’re still picking up points, Manchester City’s performances haven’t been brilliant recently. They’ve dominated against both West Ham and Bournemouth but have found it hard to break them down, winning both those games just 1-0.
That might be down to their growing injury list, with their two main centre midfielders – Fernandinho and Kevin De Bruyne – out with niggles. De Bruyne is one of City’s main creators and, whilst they still have the likes of David Silva and Bernardo Silva, he’s been missed by Pep Guardiola.
City score an average of 3.33 goals per-game at home and, without two of their best midfielders and some struggles scoring goals recently, you could argue that they won’t hit that average on Saturday.
Watford have been playing well recently and that late goal against Leicester last weekend, secured another three points for Javi Gracia’s side. They did get heavily beaten by Liverpool the other week but I think Gracia will use some lessons learnt that day to prevent Manchester City running riot.
Their other two away games against the top six were 2-0 and 2-1 defeats to Arsenal and Tottenham respectively, showing they’re capable of performing against some of the top sides in the league.
The betting angle
I’m going for Manchester City to win and Under 4.5 Goals in this one, which is 3/4 with Betway.
It’s landed in 6/7 of their games against home games against sides 7th to 15th, and with Watford sat in 8th, I imagine we’ll see a reasonably low scoreline.
Best Bets
Manchester City v Watford – Manchester City to win and Under 4.5 Goals (3/4 Betway)
