Arsenal are currently on a 6 match winning streak in all competitions (4 in the league) and this time they host Watford who’ve made a strong start to the season, but recently dipped in form which was expected. However, this does shape up to be a tough match for Arsenal and they’ll have to turn up if they want to continue their winning ways. At the Emirates they have been pretty much unbeatable in recent years and many expect them to win this match, but can Watford pull off a surprise?
Key Facts
Ever since their slow start losing their first 2 games, Arsenal went on to win 6 straight scoring 17 goals in all competition during that winning run which is nearly 3 a game.
Defensively, however Arsenal have been very shaky. Only 1 clean sheet in 8 matches in all competitions. In the league on average they allow 1.5 goals per game to other teams.
Aubameyang and Lacazette have finally started to pick up some really good goal scoring form with Aubameyang scoring 3 in his last 2 matches and Lacazette scoring in back to back appearances.
Aubameyang has a very good goal scoring record at the Emirates scoring 10 in 11 games.
5 of 8 Arsenal’s matches had over 3.5 goals.
Since 2016, these clubs met 4 times at the Emirates and Watford have actually won 2 of those matches, Arsenal won the other 2.
Unai Emery has a very positive record against Watford’s Javi Garcia. 5W 1D 0L
Watford are unbeaten away from home this season. 2W 1D.
Andre Gray and Roberto Pereyra have both scored 3 goals in the league for Watford which is tied best. Troy Deeney has 2.
Watford have actually been very good going forward scoring 15 in 8 games in al competitions which is nearly 2 per game, they’ve scored in every game this season.
Defensively, Watford haven’t been that solid only keeping 2 clean sheets in all competitions.
Since the start of 2015-16 season when Watford returned to BPL, all 7 of their matches against Arsenal had over 2.5 goals including cup competition. In those 7 matches there have been 23 goals scored between these.
Team News
Arsenal: Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Mavropanos, Koscielny and Jenkinson are all still out for Arsenal meanwhile Sokratis is questionable after picking up an injury last week against Everton. If Sokratis can’t go then we should expect Holding slot in alongside Mustafi. Mkhitaryan returned from injury midweek against Brentford but he isn’t expected to start here. Elsewhere, everyone is fit to go for Arsenal. Last week we saw Lucas Torreira make his first start after slotting in for 19 year old Guenduozi and is expected to continue to start this weekend. Iwobi and Welbeck are two players who have shown some fantastic form and will be knocking on the door to start. Cech will start in goal again after putting in a fantastic performance last week. Aubameyang and Lacazette are going to be Arsenal’s biggest threats, those two have been hitting the net a lot recently and this duo has clicked on all cylinders since being put to start together by Emery. Defensively however they still have to improve.
Watford: Cleverley and Deulofeu are both massive injury doubts, meanwhile Centre Back Kabasele was sent off against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup and is suspended for this match. Prodl and Britos are both absent too. Otherwise, Javi Garcia can field his normal starting 11 bar Kabasele. Expect all 3 of Pereyra, Deeney and Gray to feature as they are Watford’s most dangerous attackers and are expected to put Arsenal’s vulnerable defence under a lot of pressure. Watford, themselves will have to be strong at the back, losing Kabasele to a suspension is definitely the last thing they needed coming up against such a strong attacking force in Arsenal. It will be tough for Watford, but they’ve already shown that they can compete with big clubs this season and we shouldn’t write them off that easily.
Betting Tips and Predictions
This game clearly screams goals galore. Both sides are entertaining going forward, but defensively look very suspect. Arsenal to win is our prediction here but wouldn’t back it at 1.47 due to low value odds. Arsenal -1 AH at 1.77 is more of a worthy bet here. We are expecting quite a high scoring game that could get into 5-6 goals here, with the final score being something like 3-2/4-2 to Arsenal. Over 3.5 goals at 2.15 looks like a very good value bet for this match up. BTTS is only priced at 1.55 so if you wanted to make a 2-3 bet combo then that is a good one too. We are expecting both Arsenal strikers to get on the scoresheet but defensively they should be cut open, last week they kept their first clean sheet but if not for Cech they could’ve and should’ve conceded about 3-4. Highly doubtful that Cech can save them that many times again and Watford are arguably even more lethal than Everton right now. So that’s about it, we’re expecting a very high scoring game with Arsenal coming out as winners against Watford.
Match Odds (TonyBet)
Arsenal Win – 1.47
Draw – 4.80
Watford Win – 6.70
KICK OFF – 29th September 2018 – 3pm UK Time
.png?v=1.014689135)
