Watford to stand firm in the capital
Nuno Espirito Santo has gone into Tottenham Hotspur with a method and it is so far so good with Spurs picking up two 1-0 wins to begin the campaign, the first of which impressively came against champions Manchester City. Watford were very enterprising in their opening day 3-2 win over Aston Villa however fell to a 2-0 loss at Brighton and Hove Albion in last time out. Tricky to pass a relevant judgement, there were some unrepeatable goals against Villa gave them a helping hand towards the result.
Background
Both managers have a reputation for being good at shoring up defences and it is clear that Santo wants to build from that in his tenure at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Xisco Munoz found an outstanding centre back partnership in Francisco Sierralta and William Troost-Ekong last season, playing a huge role in the Hornets’ automatic promotion despite sparkling displays being few and far between.
Watford have an identity now, they look for value in the foreign market particularly in attacking positions and do not give managers much time at all, if they are on a bad run they are out and Munoz will be well versed in what lies ahead for him if the club do not hit the ground running in the top-flight.
Spurs are very strong favourites for this encounter, which does come as a bit of a surprise for me considering they can only boast two wins by a one goal margin. Spurs have conceded zero goals from 4.2 expected goals against in their opening two, completely unsustainable despite the small sample size, if Watford are clinical they could punish the North Londoners.
Ismaila Sarr is the danger man for the Hornets, his pace in behind can be devastating, not dissimilar in his style of play the Spurs key man Son Heung-Min but he has a way to go to match the all-round threat of the South Korean.
For this match I am going to be using the Asian Handicap. A very useful market when not overly excited by an outright price and I am going to utilise it to give Watford a 1.25 goal headstart which I think they can hold onto in this match. A third consecutive 1-0 win for Spurs would bring us a half win with this selection.
Post bet chat Marcus's Tips:
We take the half win as Spurs grab their third consecutive 1-0 win.