The Sky Bet Championship weekend concludes with a big match in the race for promotion on Monday evening when play-off chasers Watford and West Bromwich Albion clash in a huge game at Vicarage Road.
These two were expected to be right up at the top of the division pushing for automatic promotion this season but going into the game they both sit outside the top six and as we head towards the final quarter of the campaign both need to find some consistent form after a bumpy patch.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Football channels with the build-up beginning at 7.30pm and kick off at Vicarage Road at 8pm.
Watford
Before a ball was kicked this season Watford were the favourites to win the Championship but it certainly hasn’t panned out that way and with 14 matches left the Hornets would need to sprout wings and fly just for a top two finish. That isn’t happening so the best they can hope for is a place in the top six and hope to make it back to the Premier League via the play-offs, however that is anything but guaranteed with the quality in the top six race.
Slaven Bilic has had the rare luxury of more than 20 games in the Watford hotseat but you wouldn’t really say he has made them any better, although it should be said he has been crippled by a huge injury list to some pretty important players. Those players are back now but the Hornets still go into this match with four draws and a defeat in their last five matches. A turnaround is needed for their top six ambitions, and you suspect for the Croatian to remain in a job.
West Bromwich Albion
Watford aren’t the only team who underachieved early on and changed their manager. That happened to West Bromwich Albion too and they resurrected their promotion hopes when fears of relegation were circling The Hawthorns when Carlos Corberan was appointed. They went on a brilliant run to get themselves into the top six at one stage but a recent run of one win in four has left them back on the outside looking in.
The away form of the Baggies is becoming a bit of a concern. They have lost three of their last five on the road in the Championship and one of the two they won they were 2-0 down in before the Luton keeper had two absolute brain fades. The road defeat to Birmingham a week or so ago was particularly disappointing and they certainly don’t need a repeat of that performance. West Brom are having a few issues between the sticks which doesn’t help matters.
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Team News
Slaven Bilic has confirmed that he has lost midfielder Tom Cleverley for around eight weeks but he could have the likes of Imran Louza, Joao Pedro and Ken Sema available from the start after they featured in the draw at Burnley last week.
West Brom are having issues between the sticks with Alex Palmer out with a knee injury. They tried David Button there but he is an accident waiting to happen and then his replacement, Josh Griffiths, didn’t cover himself in glory against Blackburn either.
Betting
This is not the easiest Championship assignment to bet on we’ve ever had and any bet I do take will need to have some value attached to it. Watford are on a run of five without a win, although to cut them some slack, which as a Luton fan is hard to do, two of those five have been against Burnley and Middlesbrough who are the best teams in the league by a country mile at the minute. They are a team who plays when they want to though whereas the away form of West Brom doesn’t lure me into a bet either.
I’ll go with one bet which will have a good chance of landing should the egos in the Watford ranks decide this is a good night to play and that is for them to score more than 1.5 goals. West Brom have conceded twice in each of their last three away matches and when Watford want to play there is more than enough in their attacking options to find the net, especially with West Brom keepers doing their best to gift goals to the opposition at the minute. In the reverse meeting, which was admittedly against a Steve Bruce version of West Brom, Watford scored and missed a penalty. If they fancy the job this West Brom defence is there for the taking.
Tips
Back Watford – Over 1.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with BetVictor
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