Match Preview: Watford vs Leicester City

Watford 10th (6-4-9) vs Leicester City 8th (7-6-6)

Tuesday 10:00 AM ET, Vicarage Road Live on the NBC Sports Gold App

Mr. Christmas, Harry Maguire, was the savior of an interesting match between Manchester United and Leicester on Saturday. Marc Albrighton delivered the back-post cross like a last minute gift purchased on Amazon and, despite being down to 10 men, Leicester salvaged a point.

The Competition

Watford are in a terrible spell of form at the moment. They’ve lost four straight matches and have only managed a point in their last six. They have scored five goals in that stretch, but they’ve also allowed 13, most notably allowing four goals twice against Manchester United and Huddersfield.

Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Their recent span of defeats has been aided by the lack of discipline they’ve showed over the six games. Troy Deeney served the first of his four match ban against Brighton and Hove Albion, having been red carded 33 minutes into their match against Huddersfield Town. Tom Cleverly saw a second yellow turn red in the 87th minute of their loss to Crystal Palace. In the match before against Burnley, Marvin Zeegelaar saw straight red and thus began their cycle of losing players to rash decisions.

The Foxes

The biggest stat that stood out to me, and many other Leicester fan’s, was Leicester’s 18 fouls to Manchester United’s 8. While I could yammer about about the performance of Jon Moss and in turn produce a novel of size that would make Homer jealous, let us rejoice that our losing ways are currently halted.

Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

It’s good to see Jamie Vardy back on the score sheet. Riyad Mahrez was so smooth in his deception to let the ball dangle at his feet before sliding over to Vardy to fire it home with his weak foot. Here’s to 50 more and another title please, Jamie!

The Prediction

Leicester’s Boxing Day record in the Premier League (1-2-8) leaves little hope for what may come, especially given they’ve lost the last three in a row. Watford also have an unfavorable Boxing Day record in the league (0-2-2), if you tie that in with their current abysmal home form, two wins from nine matches, we could end up with a very interesting Boxing Day match. I like a 3-1 return to winning ways for Leicester.