One of the biggest matches happening in the Championship this evening is the tie between Watford and Nottingham Forest.
Both sides have been early pacesetters this season. Watford sitting at the top of the league on 24 points after picking up a fantastic 3-0 away victory against Sheffield Wednesday, despite being on their fourth manager since the start of the season. Forest on the other hand, sit 5th in the table on 21 points after a 2-1 away loss to Cardiff City, meaning the Reds have failed to win in their last five Championship games.
Watford’s current manager, Serbian Slavisa Jokanovic got off to a good start in charge against Wednesday thanks to goals by Odion Ighalo, Almen Abdi and Matej Vydra.
Scottish winger Ikechi Anya is set to return to the Watford squad for the visit of Forest. He was out at the weekend due to a calf injury but was back in training on Monday. Striker Troy Deeney could be making his full return as well. The Englishman did play a couple of minutes at the weekend after being out for a whole month with a hamstring injury. Craig Cathcart and Keith Andrews will miss the Forest match due to calf problems but they are expected to train on Wednesday, leaving just Gabriel Tamas (knee) and Gabriele Angella (ankle) on the injury list for The Hornets.
Forest manager Stuart Pearce suffered his first defeat in charge on Saturday, ending their 11-game unbeaten streak. They are now three points adrift from the top of the table.
Despite making a promising start to the match at the Cardiff City Stadium, the Reds fell two goals behind after 30 minutes, before their top goalscorer, striker Britt Assombalonga scored a late consolation. This was the Englishman’s ninth goal of the season. Fellow Englishman Michail Antonio assisted the goal, putting him on six for the season so far. These two danger men will be marked closely by Watford’s defence.
Pearce named an unchanged squad to face Cardiff, but a couple of changes will have to be made for this midweek fixture. English midfielder Henri Lansbury will miss the trip to Vicarage Road through suspension after he was booked for the fifth time this season during the defeat to Cardiff on Saturday, much to the irritation of Pearce.
“Henri has picked up a lot of bookings in a short space of time and it is something he has to improve on, cheap bookings. And it is another player down for us on Tuesday night,” said Pearce.
“Henri has always had it in him to give cheap bookings away, even going back to my time working with him in the England Under-21 squad. It is something he has to mature a little bit, in his game, to eradicate.”
David Vaughan or Ben Osborn are expected to replace Lansbury in the midfield. As well as this, Pearce also still has Andy Reid, Chris Cohen and Jack Hobbs out through injury. Matty Fryatt is still expected to replace Reid behind Assombalonga.
The Hornets are undefeated in their last six home matches in the Championship, and The Reds have failed to win in their last five Championship games. In the eight of the last nine home matches against Forest for Watford, there has been under 2.5 goals, and with how close the teams are to each other in the table, this is likely to be a low scoring game. This will be both sides’ toughest game yet, and a position at the top of the table is a probability for either side if they win and results go their way, but a draw is the most likely outcome.
Prediction: Watford 1-1 Nottingham Forest