Another weekend in the Sky Bet Championship kicks off on Friday night when two sides who were relegated out of the Premier League last term meet at Vicarage Road when Watford welcome Burnley to Hertfordshire.
Both teams have begun their campaign with a win and a draw in their opening two matches and so whoever comes out on top here will head the way in the Championship ahead of the fixtures to come on Saturday.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football channels with the build-up at Vicarage Road beginning at 7.30pm and the match kicking off at 8pm.
Watford
The Hornets opened up their season with a solid 1-0 win against Sheffield United in a match which won’t live too long in the memory of too many but they were outplayed in their season match against West Bromwich Albion on Monday evening. The good thing for them is that despite being second best in that game they picked up a point to preserve their unbeaten start to the campaign, and had Ismaila Sarr scored a second half penalty they might even have won that match.
Watford haven’t offered a great deal in front of goal just yet. Their xG totals have been 1.02 and 1.03, the latter heavily skewed by a penalty, so that is the area for improvement from Rob Edwards’ charges, although whether the heat and humidity in Hertfordshire on Friday evening allows it to come out here remains to be seen. The positive is that they have only conceded one goal in their opening two matches, although a lot of that was down to luck rather than design.
Burnley
After kicking off the season with a 1-0 win over Huddersfield Town in what was the opening match of the new Sky Bet Championship campaign, Burnley followed that up with a solid draw against Luton Town last weekend and will be looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign here. The immediately obvious thing when watching this Burnley side is there is going to be a huge transition in style under Vincent Kompany, who already has set out his intentions for his side to control possession.
They are already looking comfortable in possession and as more signings come in and adjust to the style they are likely to only get better in that discipline. The one thing they have lacked in their opening two matches is a killer instinct in front of goal. They actually lost the xG battle to Luton last week but still got into good areas but couldn’t find the killer pass or finish. That is something Kompany will need to rectify but you would think that should come in due course.
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Team News
Watford could be without Francisco Sierralta for this match after he picked up an injury in the draw with West Brom. Imran Louza remains out with the injury that kept him out at The Hawthorns but Hamza Choudhury arrived on loan from Leicester in time to play.
Burnley were without Scott Twine and Jay Rodriguez for the draw with Luton last week and they are expected to miss out here as well. Ashley Westwood and Johann Berg Gudmundsson are also out but Manuel Benson and Vitinho could be ready to start after coming off the bench on Saturday.
Betting
I think goals might well be at a premium here. Both teams have two goals in two matches and one of those was a wonder strike from inside his own half so to say that these two haven’t been quite on it offensively just yet this term. I fancy a bit of a cagey game here between two sides who know they are expected to get promotion this season and might not be willing to open up too much even at this stage of the campaign.
The other obvious thing for expecting fewer goals than maybe usual is because it is going to be pushing 30 degrees at kick off time in Hertfordshire and clearly not conditions conducive to a fast-paced, free-flowing game of football. It might be that with their intention to dominate possession that Burnley are good things here but until they find a proven scorer I’m reluctant to take them. Watford have a vibrant front three but they won’t see much of the ball. The opening four matches involving these two this season have been under 2.5 goals and I think a fifth comes along here.
Tips
Back Under 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with BetVictor
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