Bristol City vs Watford prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2022-11-11 15:00.
November has brought no respite so far for Bristol City, who made it four Championship games without victory (D2, L2) back on Bonfire Night after drawing 1-1 at Middlesbrough. Coach Nigel Pearson hailed “a battling performance” but with his side losing the second half in a fourth successive league match, there are still real questions over their staying power.
The news doesn’t get better here at Ashton Gate, with the Severnside outfit winning just once in their last six home league games (D2, L3) whilst they suffered the embarrassment of losing 3-1 to League One outfit Lincoln in the EFL Cup on Tuesday. The doubts surrounding them are also reinforced by last season’s winless home league record against newly-relegated teams (D3), where they dropped points beyond the hour mark in their last two such clashes.
Watford clearly have the ability to succeed where those top-flight dropouts failed, with Slaven Bilić’s men still in the automatic promotion mix, as they look to pull off a second promotion in three years. A return of four wins in five (L1) has propelled the Hornets to within four points of the top-two, and their current haul of 32 points is just two less than the 20-game tally they held back in 2020/21.
Having also made it three clean sheets from five outings in midweek (2-0 vs Reading), Watford will also be boosted by two away wins in a row, including a comeback versus Cardiff to put their away record under Bilić back in positive territory (W3, L2). Yet, with the two losses seeing an opposition player score multiple times, Watford must identify Bristol’s main threat quickly if they want to keep good times rolling.
Players to watch: Bristol’s most frequent threat is already known to be seven-goal Nahki Wells, whose last goal vs Watford (Jan 2015) came in a 3-1 victory. As for Watford’s own leading scorer, Ismaïla Sarr won it on the Hornets’ last road trip, meaning that his only two headed goals this term have both been matchwinners!
Hot stat: Six of the last seven Championship H2Hs to see a winner have produced an exact two-goal margin.