Kick-off: 2000, 04/07/2020
Stadium: Stamford Bridge
TV: Sky Sports
Chelsea’s top-four chances suffered a setback at West Ham in midweek but they will hope to quickly recover when hosting Watford at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues beat the Hornets 2-1 away in November and have won the last three meetings at this venue, with that trio of matches producing a whopping 16 goals.
It is Evens for a home win and over 2.5 goals in this game, which gets a confident vote for our initial Chelsea vs Watford prediction.
A Look At Chelsea’s Betting Odds
Chelsea’s run of five straight wins in all competitions came to a dramatic end when they were beaten 3-2 at London Stadium on Wednesday night.
Willian was on target twice against the Hammers, but the Blues lacked focus in defence and ultimately left empty handed following Andriy Yarmolenko’s dramatic last-gasp decider.
Frank Lampard was forced to rue his side’s inability to capitalise on having more than 70 per cent of the possession.
He said: “If you play in the Premier League and make mistakes, if you boss possession but don’t do quite enough with it at the top of the pitch, then it can happen.
“It is why we are fighting for top four and not one or two, because we don’t get things right as much as the big boys do. As a group, we need to find more consistency.”
However, it is hard to desert Chelsea after their excellent 2-1 win over Manchester City here six days earlier, with an FA Cup triumph coming at Leicester in between.
Willian is enjoying a good run of form, netting five times in six matches, and 13/2 for him to break the deadlock catches the eye from the Chelsea vs Watford odds.
Last Chelsea line-up: Kepa, Rudiger, Alonso, Christensen, Azpilicueta, Kante, Barkley, Kovacic, Pulisic, Abraham, Willian.
A Look At Watford’s Betting Odds
Watford have struggled since the restart, picking up just one point from three games following a 3-1 home loss to Southampton.
Andre Gray, Nathaniel Chalobah and Domingos Quina were left out of that game after breaking lockdown rules by attending the first-named’s 29th birthday party.
The Hornets’ current form is a long way adrift of that shown in a sparkling run over Christmas and New Year which brought four wins from five matches.
Goalkeeper Ben Foster commented: “The team, to me, looked like there was a lot more energy around the place all those months ago.
“It seemed to me like there was a lot more drive, a lot more willingness to run and fight and really stick your foot in – and it seems to have just disappeared a little bit.
“It’s hard to put your finger on why, we can’t use the fact that everybody has been off for three months as an excuse.
“Everyone’s in the same boat and we have to look at ourselves and ourselves only now.”
If Chelsea get on top before the break, we can see the visitors falling away after the interval, especially as Lampard is likely to urge his men to kick on exorcise Wednesday’s demons.
Let’s add 11/5 for the Blues to win both halves to our Chelsea vs Watford betting tips.
Last Watford line-up: Foster, Dawson, Masina, Cathcart, Kiko, Doucoure, Hughes, Capoue, Pereyra, Deeney, Sarr.
Additional stats
Last result:
West Ham 3-2 CHELSEA – Willian (2)
WATFORD 1-3 Southampton – Jan Bednarek (og)
Head-to-head: Watford 1-2 Chelsea, Chelsea 3-0 Watford, Watford 1-2 Chelsea, Watford 4-1 Chelsea, Chelsea 4-2 Watford
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