Palace likely to play 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1 with tucked in wingers in Ayew and Zaha and Benteke upfront. Ayew is their top scorer and Zaha their top assister. But while one of the best defences in the division they are very parsimonious upfront. Disciplined defence although Guaita can make howlers more often than not. Milivojevic may be back for this one. They are very workmanlike and can be prised open especially down the flanks. Brighton just cannot finish with March being especially culpable. For us unchanged lineup from the end of the Liverpool win. Deulofeu. No news as yet but the injury is to the knee and likely to be serious with Gerald in tears and agony in the medical room. Simply put. More of the same. The effort, discipline and work rate were exemplary last night. One poor performance recently and that is the second half against Manchester United.Otherwise points thrown away against Spurs, Villa, Everton and Brighton. A little word on Sarr. For the minutes he has played in a struggling team he has been exceptional. Doubled his value last night and simply scares the daylights out of defenders putting them immediately on the backfoot. Has the pace to escape the offside and what is so impressive is his composure and maturity growing game by game. And anticipation as well. A very high footballing intelligence. That he was willing to wait and set up Troy rather than what many might have done and tried to shoot at Becker to get an improbable third speaks volumes. The finish for the second was that of a supreme technician Messi like. He will get far more attention now and lets hope Aanholt who has left a nasty challenge or two in his time as on Cleverley before is left in his wake. Others need to utilize the fact Sarr will have the extra player on him. It was one of the best performances by Watford in years and the team unit was mightily impressive. Special praise also to Masina who is first choice by a mile over Holebas and showing his quality game in and out. Hughes as a midfield destroyer ? Utter revelation in the role. Covers the midfield wins the ball plays it to feet and still pops up on the edge of the box anticipating a chance. Last time out a 0-0 draw. Should have been a penalty with Pearson in the stands watching on as Cahill clambered over Deeney. This fixture has a little more vitriol in it now considering the recent play off matches but the players just need to play the team in front of them not the crowd and not get sucked into anything and repeat the levels of performance from last night for the next ten games. If they do I am sure we will escape the drop. Losing next week with a sub par effort is not acceptable and being remembered as the only team to beat the champions and then be relegated is not something to be proud about either. And certainly not what the club needs as it seeks to grow and develop.
Brighton v Palace was horrible viewing yesterday. Nice goal line clearance by Maupay to deny Dunk. One bit of class from Benteke his trough ball to Ayew was tip fop. Apart from that typical Palace. It's not going to be pretty on the eyes but after yesterdays performance we should be on a high
It's our "rivals" from the local chippie down the road, with a side of fried egg. I like the so-called rivalry from their fans due to the Harry the Hornet. They need to get over themselves about that. When we beat them 2-1 at the Vic last season and he did that funny dive right in front of Woy that was priceless. Zaha seems to hate playing us too - usually has a little cry in the corner after the game and keeps the referee in his pocket. I personally feel Palarse are safe from relegation, their (thankful) win over Brighton has more or less confirmed that now. All the pressure of the result will be back on us to try to keep the standards up after last night - something I know, and we all know, the side are capable of doing. Pearson is a great man-manager and will drill it home this week we cannot let standards slip again. Confidence should be back, and the team looked elated after the game - s0mething we have not seen since we beat Manure at the Vic early December. We need to go at Palarse from the off - cannot sit back like we did at Villa and Brighton especially after taking the lead. If we do score the first goal, we need to keep at them. Sarr is in great form so no reason why we cannot try a more attacking game against them. Palarse have players who can hurt us certainly, and we need to be just as focused as we were last night. It's a winnable game, but a game we can typically lose also. If we put in a poor show and roll over, the Liverpool win will lose a bit of gloss as we cannot follow it up. Let's get at them and really try to pull clear of the bottom three. Woy's Chippies 0 Watford 2
Our confidence will be sky high. Hopefully CP will be complacent given their apparent safety. Must win game, a real 12 pointer. CP 2 WFC 0.
We really must and should win this, I believe they hadn’t won this year until yesterday? Yet they’re on 36 points so are basically safe as they’ll surely pick up 4 points out of a possible 30. So they’re in relatively bad form, but virtually safe it would be criminal not to get three points from a club in that position, not playing well but equally nothing much to play for. As Jamie Redknapp said yesterday, if you can beat Liverpool 3-0 you can beat anybody.
If we lose to this lot, the Liverpool result will mean nothing. Well, it will but you know what I mean
To tedious 1-0 wins on the trot for Woys boys . Caps will be looking forward to locking horns with Wilf again. One thing from yesterday was they look very dangerous from corners, even the massive Brighton defenders had problems.
His boots were flip flops? What do you call a frenchman wearing sandals? Phillipe Flopp. Speaking of Fremchmen, Zaha i hear is already crying about facing that thuggish brute Etienne Capoue.
Key is not to get embroiled in a Zaha fight. Just play our game and don't do anything stupid because he'll be looking for penalties all day. It's still a must win match.
They are expected us to kick Zaha and for Peasrson to have a rant afterwards.. One of those might happen.. https://www.holmesdale.net/page.php?id=106&tid=176319&page=2 Not sure Nige has raised his voice once in interviews !
Hahaha... "Do Watford want to play football when they play us, the last six meetings have been ridiculous. I think they have still not got over us beating them in the play-offs and the FA Cup semi final.." I think we are over those now!
Ah man, the buzz of yesterday is making me excited for next weekend for a change! Well, kind of anyway, I'm still shitting myself!
Could go either way. Palace are negative and boring this year so it’s not going to be a good one to watch. I’ll go for a draw.
They don’t score many (second lowest in the league with 25) and they don’t concede many (32). 4-4 draw coming up!
The Bassett Derby! I can't bring myself to visit that flea ridden khazi of a dump again. Someone will die in that dilapidated excuse of a ground. Same work rate and desire is required as Saturday. COYH!
You think you’ve got problems! My missus tried to make me vegetarian “to save the poor animals” and this happened..
Palace have won two on the trot. 3 wins in a row are rare in this league for mid-table sides. So I'm fairly confident we won't lose.
I believe the Brighton player got booked for kicking the ball at him. Just checked on the BBC website. It shows neither were booked. But I saw with my own eyes the ref giving a yellow. Maybe it doesn't show because he was a substitute warming up when it happened?
Away allocation sold out. Personally always hated going to Palace, horrible journey by car or train, an absolute toilet of a location and stadium. https://www.watfordfc.com/matches/tickets/away-tickets-crystal-palace-sold-out-0
Ok. It's strange that it's not shown. Hopefully the spitting incident will be looked at but I would of thought we would of read something by now.
I hate it as well. But every year without fail I end up going. Only ever seen us win there twice. I also seem to end up sitting next to that lad who held the record for being on Jeremy Kyle the most.