Watford have made a flying start to the season but could be brought back down to Earth by Crystal Palace in Sunday's early kick-off.
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1pt Crystal Palace to win and both teams to score at 5/1
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Watford v Crystal Palace (1330 BST, Sky Sports Main Event)
An extremely tough one to call this with the two sides pretty evenly matched and there may not be a lot between them come the end of the season as well as on Sunday lunchtime.
Watford find themselves in fourth after two straight wins to start the season but the caveat here is the teams they've played. A home win against Brighton, who were the worst away team in the league last season, and an away win against a Burnley side struggling to get to grips with playing European football tells you that they've enjoyed a kind start.
Despite the one win and one defeat there's been more to like about Palace's two outings so far, maybe even more so from the defeat against Liverpool than the win at Fulham.
The Hornets look like a decent scoring team but Roy Hodgson will have his troops ready to defend and hit them on the break and it could be an ideal situation for them at Vicarage Road. Both teams to score is favoured and although your eye glances instantly at the draw, the Eagles are taken to pinch it.
Betting guide
Prediction: Watford 1-2 Crystal Palace (Sky Bet odds: 10/1)
2/1 on the draw is tempting and it may well fall that way. But while both teams look to have enough to find the target, Palace looked a decent side in defeat to Liverpool and a similar performance could make them too strong for the hosts.
Best Bet: Palace to win and both teams to score at 5/1
As reasoned above, with Deeney and Gray Watford have enough to score, but they've not really been tested at the back yet and in Zaha, Palace have a man who looks primed to find the net a fair few times this season.
Scorer: Roberto Pereyra to score anytime at 4/1
Deeney and Gray look dangerous, but Palace's centre-halves are pretty good at dealing with the physical challenges they're presented with. Pereyra scored twice against Brighton and is a danger coming from deeper.
Selected RequestABet: Pereyra to score and Crystal Palace to win at 22/1
Watford v Crystal Palace Opta Stats
- Watford have won just two of their last 16 matches against Crystal Palace in all competitions (D4 L10).
- Crystal Palace are unbeaten in seven league matches against Watford at Vicarage Road (W3 D4) since a 2-0 defeat in the Championship in February 2009.
- Watford will be looking to win their opening three games of a league season for only the fourth time in their history. The only previous occasions that they have done this have come in 1988-89 (2nd tier), 1997-98 (3rd tier) and 1998-99 (2nd tier) and on each of these three seasons, they have finished in the top five.
- Crystal Palace have lost just two of their last 10 Premier League games (W6 D2 L2), with both defeats coming at home against Liverpool.
- Away from home, Crystal Palace have gone five games without defeat in the Premier League (W3 D2) – they last went unbeaten in six consecutive away top-flight matches in February 1992.
- Watford have lost just once in their last nine Premier League matches at Vicarage Road, winning five and drawing three.
- Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha needs one more goal to become the Eagles’ all-time highest Premier League goalscorer (currently 23, level with Chris Armstrong).
- Wilfried Zaha has failed to score or assist in any of his six previous Premier League appearances against Watford for Crystal Palace.
- Watford have scored just five goals in their last eight competitive meetings with Crystal Palace and four of these goals have been scored by Troy Deeney. Deeney also managed to net an own goal in one of these games; a 0-1 defeat at Selhurst Park in March 2017.
- Troy Deeney has now scored in 99 different competitive matches for Watford – the only other Watford players to have scored in 100+ matches for the club are Luther Blissett, Tommy Barnett and Ross Jenkins.
