Christmas and Boxing Day has been and gone and while people are struggling to deal with two days’ worth of turkey and roast potatoes, the football fixtures have been well and truly placed in the thick of it.
Lucky for us!
Monday afternoon sees Tottenham travel to Hertfordshire to take on Watford, in what is turning out to be an intriguing battle for Champions League and Europa League qualification.
With Watford one of the surprise packages of the season, The Hornets have been steadily racking up the points and find themselves within three points of fourth place Spurs.
It will be a tricky tie for Tottenham and with both sides needing three points, it has the makings of a tense and tight affair.
Watford
Quique Sanchez Flores has done a wonderful job since arriving at Watford in the summer and despite 13 signings threatening to upset the balance of the squad, they haven’t looked out of place.
From being tipped to go straight back down again, Watford now occupy 7th place and find themselves right in the thick of it, with a genuine chance of qualifying for Europe.
Integral to their success has been the devastating partnership of Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo up front.
The duo scored goals for fun in the Championship last year with just over 40 goals between them and in a tougher division, they’ve accounted for 19 of Watford’s 23 goals.
Deeney has five goals and an assist in his last seven games and Ighalo has scored 29 goals in 2015, with no other player scoring more, beating Harry Kane into second place.
Therefore it’s obvious where Spurs’ problems are going to lie and that’s trying to keep The Hornets and Deeny and Igahalo quiet up front.
So impressive in their 3-0 destruction of Liverpool in their last home game, but they will come up against the Premier League’s toughest defence, which adds more pressure on the duo to take chances as they come.
Since facing two losses on the bounce to Leicester City and Manchester United, Watford are currently on a five-match unbeaten run, with Boxing Day’s draw away to Chelsea, halting their four-match winning streak and run of three successive clean sheets.
Watford boast strength all over the park, with ex-Spur Etienne Capoue impressing in his holding midfield role and Chelsea loanee Nathan Ake also earning plaudits for his performances at left back.
Watford will be tough to break down and have a meaner defence than Manchester City, but their five losses this season have been to teams in and around them in the European hunt, so they have work to do to avoid making it six.
Tottenham
Since losing to Newcastle two weeks ago, Spurs’ response has been two wins, five goals scored and none conceded.
Mauricio Pochettino will be more than pleased with his side’s perfect return to winning ways and with Manchester United faltering, this season does represent Tottenham’s best chance at finishing in the top four since the 2011/12 season.
The emphatic 3-0 win over Norwich sees Spurs just six points away from leaders Leicester City and while talk of a title challenge is still some way off, if Spurs get through January’s transfer window relatively unbeaten, then pressure will be on the sides around them.
Harry Kane netted a brace on Saturday, with a coolly-taken penalty and exceptional finish from a tight angle making it 10 goals in his last nine league appearances.
Though Watford have Deeney and Ighalo, Spurs themselves have Kane and Dele Alli. Alli has been involved in five goals in his last five games, with two goals and three assists, coupling good performances with the end product.
Two clean sheets in a row makes Spurs’ defence the toughest in the Premier League, but with The Hornets’ two up top, there’s big doubts as to whether they can make it three out of three.
But the key to anything on Monday is to prevent chances falling to Deeney and Ighalo. Despite wrapping up the game against Norwich, Hugo Lloris was still called into question late on and Spurs’ defence for all its solidity, is still capable of switching off.
Spurs are particularly weak defending down the flanks, especially if Christian Eriksen plays out wide and doesn’t track back.
Jan Vertonghen wasn’t his most confident self against Cameron Jerome and Toby Alderweireld had to step in to help his Belgian counterpart out.
With two strikers in red-hot form, Watford don’t need a second invitation to pounce on a mistake.
Rotation is likely to be minimal, but with Nacer Chadli and Heung-Min Son getting a few minutes under their belt, they may be inclined for a start, with Eriksen potentially making way for another subdued outing.
The Watford view: Ben Watson, midfielder
“Everyone said we had the toughest Christmas and so far we’ve got four out of six points.
“We’ve now got Tottenham and Man City at home and we’ve been strong at home of late, so hopefully we can take [Saturday’s] performance into the Tottenham game.
“It’ll be a really tough game, but at home, on the back of our last performance at home against Liverpool when we were fantastic, we’ve just got to continue this form.
“It’s a quick turnaround, that’s the one good thing about Christmas, you can’t dwell on results, although we got a good one today.
“We’ll just go again on Monday and look to win the game again.” (Watford)
The Tottenham view: Dele Alli, midfielder
“Obviously we were in good form and we went a lot of games unbeaten before the Newcastle match and I think that result affected the boys quite a lot for a few days, but we’re in really good form again and we’re playing well.
“It was just a little setback but we’re on the right path again now and [Saturday’s win] is massive, not just for the table but for our confidence as well, especially with the game on Monday against a really good Watford side.
“Watford are playing well at the moment. They got the draw against Chelsea and they’ve got a lot of strengths, but so have we and I think we fancy our chances against anyone at the moment so we’re going to go there and try our best to get the three points.” (Tottenham Hotspur)
Predicition
With both sides playing incredibly well at the moment, this appears to be a nailed-on draw.
Maybe the team who dares more, will win.
Watford 1-1 Tottenham
