Watford v Crystal Palace: Holloway's men to draw Hornets sting

 

Andy Tongue thinks a stalemate is the most likely outcome in a tasty looking televised Championship clash...

 

Watford v Crystal Palace

Friday 8th February - 19:45 GMT

Live on Sky Sports One

 

Friday night football comes to Vicarage Road and a tantalising clash is in prospect as the fourth-placed Hornets entertain Crystal Palace, who sit just one place and  one point below them.

 

Watford

Gianfranco Zola's men have been in fine form lately. Their only two defeats came unexpectedly at home to Charlton and away to Bristol City but the common theme on each  occasion was the Italian making wholesale changes to his line-up as he sought to rest some of his talented young players. At Ashton Gate he even left Mitej Vydra,  currently the hottest striker outside the Premier League, on the bench. We can expect Vydra, who scored his 19th goal of the season and seventh in the last five games  in Saturday's 2-1 win at home to Bolton, to start at home to Palace.

 

There is a suspicion that the Hornets are better away from Vicarage Road where their fluid passing style makes them devastatingly effective on the counter-attack but  with on-loan Chelsea star Nathianel Chalobah pulling the strings in midfield and Troy Deeney providing an alternative second attacking threat to Vydra, they must fancy  their chances of promotion come May.

 

 

Crystal Palace

The Eagles are still flying high but they look to have been running out of steam a little in recent weeks. Wilfried Zaha has lacked the sparkle and zest of the early  months of the season and must surely have half an eye on Old Trafford and next year despite assurances he is fully focused on the job at hand.

 

Ian Holloway's men were decidedly second-best for much of the game at home to local rivals Charlton last week but once again it was Glenn Murray who dug them out of a  hole with two goals in five minutes late in the game to earn three priceless points. Goalkeeper Julian Speroni had earlier shown his worth with a string of top-class  stops from the visitors.

 

 

Match Odds

Watford are on something of a roll at the moment and their price of 2.12 for victory will no doubt tempt a fair few punters but I suspect that they may not  have it all own their way. Palace have proved in recent weeks that they can grind out results when not necessarily playing at their best and a point apiece looks a  likely outcome here. The draw can be backed at 3.65 and that's where my money is going.

 

 

Correct Score

With the division's two top scorers on display in Vydra and Murray, we should expect an entertaining game and a small play on 2-2 is advised in the correct score  market.

 

Recommended Bets

Best Bet: Back the draw at 3.65

Back 2-2 in the correct score market at 15.0

 

Bet HERE

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