On the 10th of December, Everton will host Watford at Goodison Park in the 16th round of English Premier League.
Everton is currently 7th in the league, with an overall record of 6-5-4 and an impressive 5-2-1 home record. In their last 5 games, Everton had won 2, drew 2 and lost 1. Their only defeat in the past 6 games came from a match against Liverpool in 2nd of December (1:0). Even that match should have ended 0:0, but Liverpool scored the winning goal in 90’+6. Losing against rivals is painful enough, but losing in the final moments of the match adds even more salt to the wound. Looking at Everton last match. they have played a draw against Newcastle (1:1). The match saw only 2 goals, which were scored in 19th minute and 38th minute. Although the sides had plenty of opportunities in the 2nd half they all went wide. All in all, Everton was a better side in that match, with 76% possession and 19 goal attempts, whereas Newcastle had only 24% ball possession and 8 goal attempts. Even though Everton performed better, they failed to score a winning goal. Their offence has not been doing the best of jobs in recent games, averaging only 1 goal/game and that was a big part of why they did not manage to win in that match. Final score: 1:1.
The visiting side, Watford, are currently 13th in the league with a 6-2-7 record. As of now, they are not in the best of shape, as they were defeated in 4 out of the last 5 games. The only match out of these 5 that did not end in a defeat was against Southampton (1:1). With those poor performances, they are the worst team in the league looking solely at the last 5 games. Their issues do not come only from their poor offence but also poor defence. In the last 5 games, Watford conceded 9 goals and scored only 2. In their most recent match, Watford played a 1:2 match against Manchester City, which on the paper looks like a good result, but to be fair City could have won by a bigger margin. On the match, it was Manchester City who had many more dangerous opportunities to score a goal but failed to convert them. On the other hand, Watford’s only goal was scored due to a mistake in Citys defence. It was a good effort from Watford, but they were outclassed by City. Final score: 1:2.
The last time these two teams played against each other was on the 24th of February 2018. That match ended in Watford winning (1:0). Historically, the teams are relatively equal in H2H matches, however, this just might not be the case tonight. Everton has been performing better this season, but as I said, their offence has not been active enough in recent matches. On the bright side, Everton has one of the best defences in the league, conceding only 17 goals in 15 games. Watford is coming into this match after a disappointing run with only 1 point in 5 games. Their biggest problem is their offence, as they only scored 2 goals in the 5 matches, but conceded 9. In conclusion, I believe this match will end as a low scoring one, with no more than 2 goals.
Prediction: Under 2.50 goals
Odds: 2.02 Dafabet, 2.01 Pinnacle
