Manchester City head south to face Watford at Vicarage Road in the Premier League this weekend. It is safe to say that this journey holds no fears for the Citizens. They have an incredibly good record against the Hornets, and there is no reason for that not to continue.
Pep Guardiola has a 100 % win rate against Watford having won all nine fixtures against them in his career. It is an impressive nine-game win streak against the Hornets, a feat he has only matched in his career against one other opponent- Bournemouth.
Claudio Ranieri has not had the desired effect since being appointed Moose Men manager. The change in the dugout has yielded just two victories.
The victory against Manchester United and the form he has managed to get out of Emmanuel Dennis has papered over the cracks a little bit, but the Italian cannot be comfortable with how things are going at Vicarage Road. Particularly when you bear in mind how trigger-happy the top brass is at Watford when it comes to managers.
Watford vs Manchester City FYIs:
Kick-off time: 5.30 PM GMT, 4th December 2021
Man City Team News: go here
Premier League Preview Pod: go here
Form Guide (All Competitions): Watford (LLWLL) Man City (WWWWW)
So here we go, once again I am going to try my carnival trick of predicting the Manchester City line-up come kick-off time in Hertfordshire.
The goalkeeper position will be capably filled by none other than Brazillian superstar Ederson. He is rock solid for the Citizens and is conceding a goal every 167 minutes. That’s almost two whole matches without conceding, on average. Nailed on that he will start.
The full-back positions will likely be filled by the same duo that performed the duties against Aston Villa with Kyle Walker in doubt for this one. That means Oleksandr Zinchenko will start at left-back whilst Joao Cancelo will switch flanks to right-back.
No John Stones means the door is wide open for Aymeric Laporte to waltz straight back into the side at center-back. Ruben Dias will likely be his partner.
Dias hasn’t hit the heights of last season but is still a world-class operator. This duo has proved time and time again that they can keep a clean sheet and that will be the mission once again.
I think Rodri might get a rest against the Hornets. He has been in superb form and they won’t want to risk injury through over-playing to such an integral player.
That means Fernandinho will start for a second game running. Bernardo Silva will start this one, his rest likely coming in the Citizen’s next fixture, a dead rubber against RB Leipzig. He will likely be partnered by a returning Phil Foden.
There will be a return for Jack Grealish also.
The most expensive Englishman of all time will slot in at left-wing. Riyad Mahrez will likely play on the right-wing, with Gabriel Jesus playing centrally as the striker.
I can only see one winner in Hertfordshire and it will be the reigning champions from Manchester.