Watford vs Middlesbrough prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2023-09-29 14:00.
After a brutal 3-0 humbling at the hands of Leeds last weekend, Watford have now won just one of their last eight competitive outings (W1, D3, L4). Hornets boss Valérien Ismaël will undoubtedly feel the pressure from a club notorious for having little patience with managers, yet he bemoaned his side for making it “too easy” against Leeds, something he must fix here against Middlesbrough.
The Hornets can draw confidence from the fact that they’ve not lost a single home league H2H in over a decade (W4, D1). Watford have probable cause to believe that record could be extended, especially given that they’ve kept clean sheets in four of their last six home outings, a run which saw them lose just once (W3, D2, L1). That’s not to mention that Ismaël has faced Boro only twice, each time unbeaten, with a different club at home (W1, D1).
The repetition of Boro boss Michael Carrick boasting he was “proud of the boys” across the past few weeks simply served to exacerbate the feeling of frustration amongst their fans, yet the results have finally matched the performances with back-to-back competitive wins ahead of this game. The stats back up Middlesbrough’s hard luck story in the league, with no side possessing a larger negative differential between expected goals (1.61) and actual goals scored per match (0.67).
Despite the positives of back-to-back away wins in the EFL Cup, Boro are without a travelling clean sheet in league action across their last 17 trips. Carrick’s side conceded a whopping 32 goals during that sequence – an average of 1.88 per game – and you have to look back to 1966 for a longer run of Middlesbrough away league games without a shutout (29)!
Players to watch: Matheus Martins has scored in two of Watford’s last four matches. They both ended level, but he has never lost a single competitive scoring club appearance (W6, D3). Trying to outdo him may be Boro’s Riley McGree, the Australian national team regular who followed up a wonderful long range strike in the last round with an assist in their midweek cup win over Bradford.
Hot stat: Just two of the last seven H2H encounters saw both teams score.