Match Preview: Brighton v Watford
Before the Albion took on Aston Villa three long weeks ago, what were you hoping for points wise from the four games to follow? Villa, Bournemouth, West Ham United and Watford provided the opposition for Brighton – fixtures which most fans would preview beforehand as being targets for three points.
Here at WeAreBrighton.com Towers, we went with eight. Two wins, two draws. The reality has been very different however, and even if the Albion beat Watford at the Amex then they’ll still have only have mustered five points out of 12 against a host of relegation rivals.
Still, Saturday’s draw at the London Stadium feels like a turning point. Many were questioning whether this Brighton side had the bottle or fight to survive. Coming back from 3-1 down with 15 minutes to play to draw 3-3 against West Ham emphatically answered that one.
The result should give the Albion players’ confidence a real boost. The sight of Graham Potter finally trusting Glenn Murray to start and Murray subsequently scoring – and signing a new contract – has certainly given supporters a lift.
Brighton now need to capitalise on the feel-good factor and newfound optimism against the Hornets. Three very big points are at stake.
A brief history of Watford
Watford are a very similar football club to Brighton, which probably explains why we’ve played them more than any other side. The Hornets have spent the majority of their existence moving between the top three divisions of English football.
The most interesting thing of note about them pre-1970 is that they used to be nicknamed the Brewers, due to the town’s thriving beer industry. Anyone who has been to Watford away and sampled the standards of pubs will appreciate how mad that seems in 2020.
It was when everyone’s favourite rock star, Elton John, took over as chairman at Vicarage Road that the good times started to roll. Under Elton and future England manager Graham Taylor, Watford rose from Division Four to finish second in the top flight, bringing European football to Vicarage Road as well as reaching the FA Cup Final.
The Hornets suffered more than most following the collapse of ITV Digital, not helped by Gianluca Vialli managing to increase the club’s wage bill by £4 million in a single season. At the time, that was an astronomical amount for a mid table Championship side which plunged them into financial trouble.
The good times returned when the Pozzo Family brought the club in 2012. They delivered Premier League football within three years, tearing up the whole “football clubs need stability” myth by rattling through nearly 20 managers in their eight years in charge so far. It’s never dull being a Hornets fan.
Watford this season
Even by Watford’s high standards, this has been an absolutely chaotic campaign so far – so it says much about how tight the Premier League is this season that they’ve managed to haul themselves out of the relegation zone.
When Brighton won 3-0 at Watford on the opening day, it felt like a preview to a very bright future under Graham Potter. After all, we’d comprehensively outplayed the previous season’s FA Cup finalists and a side who had genuine designs on a top 10 on their own patch.
Yet it became very clear very quickly that this wasn’t as impressive result as we all thought. Watford were terrible in the early part of the campaign, sacking Javi Gracia – the first manager to survive a summer in the Hornets’ hot seat since Giuseppe Sannino in 2013 – and replacing him with Quique Sánchez Flores.
Flores lasted just 10 games before he too was fired, at which point Watford turned to Nigel Pearson. Many people laughed at this decision but we were glad to see Pearson back in the Premier League. He’s been a WAB favourite ever since he used a press conference when Leicester City boss to ask a journalist if he was an ostrich, the sort of question we often ponder when on LSD.
Pearson has brought more than just philosophical questions about whether a human is flexible enough to get their head into the sand to Vicarage Road and under him, Watford are now just one win away from escaping the relegation zone – which is why this game is so important to both sides.
Brighton’s head-to-head record against Watford
With 154 meetings across 10 different competitions, Watford have been the Albion’s most frequent opponents in competitive football. 60 of those games have ended in victory for Brighton, 52 in success for Watford with 42 draws.
Since the Albion moved to the Amex in 2012, we’ve struggled to find a way to beat the Hornets. In fact, they’ve only tasted defeat at the ‘light polluting’ stadium on the edge of the South Downs once in five visits.
Brighton and Hove Albion’s head-to-head record against Watford.
Last six meetings
• Watford 0-3 Brighton (Premier League, 10/08/19)
• Brighton 0-0 Watford (Premier League, 02/02/19)
• Watford 2-0 Brighton (Premier League, 11/08/18)
• Brighton 1-0 Watford (Premier League, 23/12/17)
• Watford 0-0 Brighton (Premier League, 26/08/17)
• Brighton 0-2 Watford (Championship, 25/04/15)
If you’re having a bet this weekend, make sure it’s on both teams to score no at the Amex. You have to go back seven games to October 2014 to find the last time that happened, Lewis Dunk’s header rescuing a 1-1 draw for Sami Hyypia’s Albion at Vicarage Road on a day in which Paddy McCourt looked like the best player in the world.
That’s not to say recent meetings have been boring, either. Nobody needs reminding of the Albion’s 3-0 win in August and last February’s 0-0 draw was an entertaining game that was only scoreless because of the brilliance of Ben Foster. Excitement is normally guaranteed – just not both teams hitting the back of the net.
Team news
Following that last 15 minutes at the London Stadium seven days previously, Potter has a real selection dilemma on his hands. It was the introductions of Solly March and Ezequiel Schelotto in the wing back positions which turned the West Ham game on its head, a tactical adjustment which worked in part because David Moyes hauled the threat of Michael Antonio off the West Ham wing a minute later.
The big question for Potter now is does he start March and Schelotto – and if so, how? With Shane Duffy and Dan Burn injured and Leon Balogun sent to Wigan Athletic on loan, 3-5-2 doesn’t look to be an option – we’ve only got two centre backs unless Bernardo does an out-of-position job there.
Martin Montoya would almost certainly miss out to make way for Schelotto, but who drops out for March? Aaron Mooy was hauled last week but he’s surely not going to be put on the bench for a must-win game and Pascal Gross scored, so it would be harsh to leave him out too.
As has been the case all season, there’s very little point in trying to predict what Potter will do as the man is full of surprises. And as long as Murray starts, who gives a toss?
Watford’s key players
Troy Deeney v Adam Webster is the sort of battle that could be even more one sided than Coronavirus v human body. We’ve seen Webster struggle in the air on multiple occasions this season and his harrowing experience against Oliver McBurnie is still said to have some Brighton fans waking up in a cold sweat.
If Webster’s ordeal against McBurnie is a preview of what is to come this Saturday against Deeney, then the Watford captain will be licking his lips and Brighton could be in for a long afternoon.
At the other end of the pitch, Foster in goal remains as good as ever despite the fact that he is a pensioner in footballing terms. Brighton couldn’t find a way past him last time he came to the Amex – they’ll have to do better this time around.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Watford at home?
As noted earlier in this preview, Watford have tended to enjoy the better of their games with Brighton in recent times. We were far too hungover to appreciate the 1-0 win delivered by Pascal Gross two days before Christmas 2017, and then you’re suddenly going all the way back to the 2004-05 season to find a home victory over the Hornets.
That was a good afternoon as Mark McGhee hit the whiskey before naming his team, with Paul Watson starting in central midfield. It worked though. The Albion ended up winning 2-1 with goals from Kerry Mayo and Leon Knight.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Watford at home?
When Watford came to the Amex on the penultimate day of the 2014-15 season, they had a chance to seal promotion to the top flight with a victory. The away end was sold out and so we decided to take a Watford-supporting acquaintance of ours into the home end.
She bloody enjoyed herself obviously with the Hornets winning 2-0 to secure a place in the Premier League. The only way to celebrate this was by taking her on a pub crawl around Brighton, a dangerous plan given the game had kicked off at midday and we’d already been on the beer since 9am. Needless to say, this ended in one lost phone and a lot of sick from multiple people. She hasn’t been back to Brighton since.
What do we like about Watford?
There isn’t much to shout about if we’re being honest. No good pubs, an away end that doesn’t sell beer and their main rivals are Luton in what should be known as the “Shit Towns Derby”.
The one saving grace is the Warner Brothers Studios just outside Watford, where Wonder Woman, Mission: Impossible, Inception, Bohemian Rhapsody, Cats, Darkest Hour and Spiderman among others have all been filmed. It’s also home to the Harry Potter Studios, which is great for any fans of Herminoe Granger’s Chamber of Secrets.
Prediction
The heart says that last week’s comeback at West Ham was big and a springboard to better things. The head knows that this is Brighton and Hove Albion we’re talking about, and when do they ever deliver in must-win games? A 1-1 draw.
