11 min: Son crosses long from the left. Aurier, from the other flank, sends it back into the box. Cathcart does extremely well to eyebrow away from danger with Moura lurking. Then Tanganga is afforded space for a shot, which he whistles towards the bottom left. Foster gathers. Watford need to wake up, because they’re asking for trouble with these passive tactics.
9 min: Watford seem happy to sit back at the moment, seeing what Spurs have got. They’re holding their shape well enough, but the away side are on top at the minute.
7 min: Lo Celso feeds Aurier down the right, and the wing-back wins the first corner of the game. Lamela takes, and Foster punches miles clear with purpose. But Spurs come straight back at Watford, Lamela taking a speculative look from 25 yards. He flies right to left before dragging a low shot wide right of the target. Spurs look lively.
5 min: Watford haven’t seen much of the ball yet, though they’re flying into a few tackles in a very businesslike manner. Nigel Pearson will be happy enough with that.
3 min: Son whips a shot towards the bottom left from 20 yards. Foster gathers. On the touchline, some breaking news: Jose has a face on. He’s not happy, wondering why VAR didn’t take a proper look at the Cathcart handball and award his men a penalty.
2 min: Spurs enjoy some early possession, and stroke it around nicely. Son threatens to break clear down the left, not once but twice. The ball breaks into the Watford box and bounces off Cathcart’s arm, Moura flicking on. But the players were too close together, so no penalty. Deulofeu races off up the other end as Spurs appeal, and lashes a long-distance effort wide right. Let’s hope the game continues in this manner.
And we’re off! Watford get the ball rolling, then launch it long. Then lose it, and concede a free kick in the centre circle. A fun-packed first 12 seconds.
Here come the teams! The theme from Z Cars blasts from the speakers. Tributes are being paid to legendary Watford manager Graham Taylor, one of the nicest men in the entire history of football having passed away three years ago. The home heroes in yellow and black, Spurs sporting first-choice lilywhite. Nice to see the visitors haven’t defaulted needlessly into their keeping-the-marketing-manager-happy away colours, like so many clubs do these days. Off in a minute!
Updated
If Nigel Pearson gave a pre-match interview, your hapless MBM correspondent must have missed it. I’ve failed you, dear reader. O can you ever forgive me? If it makes up for it at all, I can report that he looked very chipper as he watched his charges warming up, laughing heartily with his players in a manner that’d make Jurgen Klopp look like Alex Ferguson in hairdryer mode. A happy ship at the moment, Watford. On the other hand, here’s Mike T: “Seems to me Spurs fans are divided. Some are gleeful at watching football in a spaceship shopping mall applauding Mr Levy’s zero net spend. And the rest, livid that we don’t win anything. Either way can anyone say they are excited at this starting 11 compared to a few years ago?”
Jose Mourinho, slightly flat, not exactly exuding sunshine this morning, speaks to BT Sport. “If I focus on the Leicester, Liverpool and Middlesbrough matches, I have to be happy with what the boys did. So let’s hope that we can follow that direction, because we were intense, we played well, we were organised. Defensively we didn’t have big problems, we created a lot of chances, we played very nice quality football. We probably didn’t score enough goals for what we did, but let’s see if we can follow. We don’t have the striking power, the number-nine target we used to play with, so we have to try to play in a different way.”
Watford are in if-it-ain’t-broke mode. No changes to the side that trounced Bournemouth 3-0 at their own gaff.
Four changes for Spurs, though, from the XI named against Boro midweek. Eric Dier, Ryan Sessegnon, Davison Sanchez and Inter’s Christian Eriksen drop to the bench; Serge Aurier, Toby Alderweireld, Dele Alli and Son Heung-min step up.
The teams
Watford: Foster, Mariappa, Dawson, Cathcart, Masina, Chalobah, Capoue, Sarr, Doucoure, Deulofeu, Deeney.
Subs: Pussetto, Gomes, Gray, Quina, Holebas, Kabasele, Pereyra.
Tottenham Hotspur: Gazzaniga, Aurier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Tanganga, Winks, Alli, Lamela, Lo Celso, Son, Lucas Moura.
Subs: Sanchez, Vorm, Dier, Sessegnon, Eriksen, Skipp, Fernandes.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland).
Preamble
Watford have only beaten Tottenham Hotspur twice in the last 32 years. And one of those victories was a futile one-goal win after a 6-3 first-leg larruping in the League Cup. Oh Watford!
But all is not lost. The other win came in this fixture last season, Troy Deeney and Craig Cathcart scoring the goals in a 2-1 win. And there’s more good news for the Hornets at this, the more recent end of our historical sample.
Watford also outplayed Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in October. They felt a little hard done by to come away with only a 1-1 draw, having created plenty of chances only to be pegged back late in the day by Dele Alli. Additionally, they’re in by far the better form right now. Spurs have only won one of their last five Premier League games, losing three; Watford by contrast are on a success bender under new boss Nigel Pearson, having picked up 13 points from the last 15 on offer.
Spurs did have a confidence-boosting win in the cup over Middlesbrough during the week. And on another day they could have turned their home loss against leaders Liverpool into a draw or even a precious victory. So you can make a case for both sides going into this match with hope … and another argument for them kicking off in trepidation. But this is why we play the actual matches rather than just yakking on about them. Can Watford continue their steady climb out of bother? Or will Spurs reignite their top-four hopes with a much-needed win? We’ll find out as we eat our lunch. It’s on!
Kick off: 12.30pm GMT.