I may still be getting over the Luton game, but that emphatic Sheffield Wednesday win certainly was a welcome tonic and hopefully sets the tone for the 2nd of this triple header week. Currently, Swansea sit 16th in the table whilst we sit in an unexpectedly lofty 5th wondering how we managed to get up there. The Opposition: Historically we've had a very even set of results between the clubs. with 8 wins each and 4 draws. One way or another, the scales will be tipped. Unless it's a draw. Then it won't. This could please fans of a symmetrical leaning. Swansea have managed to overcome an unwanted club record 9 game scoreless streak (including cup competitions) by daring to score not once but twice in the same game to beat Oxford, earning them some much needed cheer and hope to continue their newly found goal scoring touch against us. Their joint top scorers Zan Vipotnik and Liam Cullen are on two goals each and are available for tomorrow's clash. Lastly, for those with a taste for some minor team drama, Harry Darling, Ben Cabango and Liam Cullen all are unhappy with their current contract offers currently put forward to them. https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footb...disrespected-by-their-contract-offers-*latest Last year was a fairly dull affair. Two good Bachmann saves, a Bayo header straight at the keeper and a disallowed Swansea goal were the only moments of note. Oh, and a rare Ken Sema thunderbolt arrowed into the top corner for a 1-0 win gave our fans something to cheer for the long ride back. The 'Orns: Jeremy Ngakia, Angelo Ogbonna and Tom Dele-Bashiru will be unavailable through injury while Ryan Porteous will be suspended after his 5th booking of the season. Both Ryan Andrews and James Morris were fit but not selected to travel to Sheffield Wednesday and will very likely travel to Swansea. I suspect we'll revert to a back 5 with our personnel available with Ebosele starting after his stellar sub appearance while Sema will probably start in place of Larouci and rotate after 60-70 minutes as is tradition now. The absence of Sissoko was not keenly felt and could well see Dwomoh start again after a very impressive debut alongside Kayembé who looks more comfortable back in a box to box role. Breakout star Baah will likely start at RW again and Chakvetadze will almost certainly start at LW leaving it a toss up who starts as ST. I'm still not quite sure if I truly believe Vakoun Bayo scored 4 goals in a game but evidently, he did so he's liekly going to start with Jebbison given 20-30 minutes later in the game to try and show he was worth waiting over the summer to sign on loan after a very lacklustre showing so far. What I think Cleverley will choose: What I want: Nobody is really quite sure what Watford side will show up to each half of a game, let alone over 90 minutes. We've already had a fair number of highs, lows and little else between so far with only one draw so far. Let this be the sentence that condemns this game to a 0-0 affair. Sorry.
Woah woah woah!!! Sweet Baby Jesus and the Orphans!!! What's with chucking in Arial 2 font size??? I'm as blind as a tab as it is!!!
Nice preview PJ and thank you. I edited your second paragraph to a normal font size of '4' as I didn't know if that was done in error after placing the image/clip. Looking at the two line ups I would prefer yours as it's more attacking, but I do get why Clevs might go more defensive considering us and clean sheets are about as rare as Deeney having a salad. I would love a victory, but after winning our last two I think a draw here would keep us ticking over nicely, and we play Oxford at the Vic before another IB, so if we win that and draw at Swansea, seven points from a frantic three game week would be fantastic. Of course I would love us to win all three and that would be the message, but Swansea don't concede many either so it will take another Bayo super show to prize anything from them. On paper it looks to have two sides who are destined to finish mid table scrap out a draw. This sort of game is generally one I would bet on us losing (especially away), but I am hoping the confidence is still high and we can play on the front foot. I'll gladly take a point here, so seven from the last possible nine would be a great revival since we lost at Leeds. Swansea 1 Watford 1
Well they hadn’t scored for ages till Saturday and obviously we won away at last. 0-0 Bayo to miss a sitter .
Funny feeling Jettison will score his first goal in this one. If Bayo can get 4 in a game, then why not?
When was our last 0-0? Hull last season? We’ve very quickly morphed from boring boring Watford to the league's great entertainers!
Ah but presumably 17th best home form will be much better than 15th best away form, therefore nailed on home win ?
I would take stinking the game out and drawing 0-0 given the next run of kinder fixtures. Surely, if fit, Bayo has to start and I can't believe I have written this ! however after a decent cameo against Blackburn and his 4 goals on Saturday he has earnt his place
He won't be here next season, so we need to enjoy his goals while we can. More anticipation of Bayat's Tombola of shyte to get us some other no-mark we have never heard of in the Summer as a striker for peanuts to replace him with.
Would take a draw. Swansea have struggled to score this season (I think NTT20 said they recently went 6 games in a row without finding the net) but got a confidence-boosting result on Saturday. A draw keeps a bit of momentum for both teams and really puts the away losing streak in the rear view mirror for us.
Before Saturday's game Bayo was averaging just 0.09 goals per game this season. After it, he was averaging 0.42, a 358% increase. If he is able to repeat this trick again tonight he will see his goals per game jump to 1.91. In order to do so he will need to score 19.8 goals against Swansea. Would you bet against him right now?
Yes, his comments about the number of players being used this week does seem to suggest he's got some form of plan for each opposition. Let's hope that's the case anyway as we have a real chance to build some momentum. Every game this month is winnable for us really.
Winnable yes. But we're Watford. We can beat the best sides then lose at home 3-0 to the worst ones on a whim <cough>Yoveil<cough>
That is correct. Against Oxford he will need 98 goals. Tough, but gettable. If the Crow is to sustain his run until the end of the season, on the final day he will need to score 455 thousand... billion... billion goals. That may sound like a lot, but our opponents on the final day are Sheffield Wednesday so anything is possible!
Exactly there have been many games over the years at home we thought would be easy, Yeovil, Huddersfield, Millwall, Bristol City in fact any Boxing Day game springs to mind, when we are well and truly beaten!
"We want four hundred and fifty five thousand billion billion and one!" shouts the crowd as the clocks ticks over into added time at the end of the second half.
Swansea have got 6 points from last 7 games scoring just 3 goals . About time we kickstarted someone else’s season again.
