Arsenal vs Watford Preview | Latest Team News | Expected Line-Up | Predicted Score

Arsenal will be hoping to make it five consecutive Premier League victories in a row when we take on Watford at the Emirates Stadium this afternoon. 

We secured our fourth league victory – and sixth in all competitions – with a 2-0 win over Everton last weekend to move up to sixth in the table and we could find ourselves in the top four with a win today if other results go our way.

Unai Emery seems to be getting his ideas across to the players after a slow start and we booked our place in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup with a 3-1 win over Brentford in midweek so the players should be in confident mood heading in to this game.

However, we’ll face a dangerous Watford side who’ve began the season in excellent form as they currently sit fourth in the table having taken 13 points from their six games so far, so this won’t be an easy task.

The Hornets will also be looking to bounce back after their penalty shoot-out defeat to Tottenham in midweek following a 2-2 draw while they’ve only taken one point from their last two league games so Javi Garcia will be hoping to get back to winning ways.

Team news

Arsenal have been handed a boost as Sokratis Papastathopoulos will return after recovering from a dead leg that forced him off against Everton but Emile Smith Rowe is a doubt after suffering a hip problem in midweek.

Laurent Koscielny is working his way back from Achilles surgery but isn’t due back until November so he remains on the sidelines along with Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Dinos Mavropanos.

Emery is expected to recall a number of players with the likes of Petr Cech, Hector Bellerin, Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette coming in after being rested in midweek.

Watford have been success with their appeal over the red card shown to Christian Kabasele against Tottenham on Wednesday night so the defender is available for selection today.

Troy Deeney is also available after recovering from a minor knock, however, Daryl Janmaat has been ruled out for six weeks with a knee injury.

Expected line-ups

Predicted Score

Arsenal 2-1 Watford: We’ve won eight of our last 10 league games against Watford and the Hornets have lost 15 of their last 16 away games to the ‘big 6’ so the stats point to a home win. I do think Watford will give us a tough match this afternoon but our key players will be well rested and we should have enough to edge this game to secure a vital three points.