Arsenal vs Watford Preview, Team News, Line-Ups, Betting Tips & Prediction

Arsenal will be looking to keep the pressure on Premier League leaders Chelsea with a win when Watford arrive at the Emirates this evening.

We have the perfect opportunity to close the gap tonight as Chelsea face a tough trip to Anfield to take on fourth-placed Liverpool so we have to take advantage of any dropped points by beating Watford on home soil.

A win for second-placed Arsenal tonight coupled with a Chelsea defeat at Liverpool would see us move to within five points ahead of our crucial trip to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Arsene Wenger will once again be in the stands as he serves the second of his four-game touchline ban but hopefully Steve Bould can steer the team to another victory after overseeing our impressive 5-0 win at Southampton on Saturday.

Watford head in to the game sitting 14th in the table but their campaign has stuttered of late as they’ve only won one of their last 10 league games while they also crashed out of the FA Cup to Millwall at the weekend.

Betting Tips

Arsenal are the 1/4 favourites to win the game with but if you want even better odds then I like the look of Arsenal to win 2-0 at odds of 11/2. For even greater value you could throw in Alexis Sanchez as first goal-scorer for very tempting odds of 12/1 at William Hill . However, if you want the best tips then sign up on Betting Expert for professional advice as well as all the latest promotions and offers.

Team news

Despite our superb win at St Mary’s, Wenger is still expected to ring the changes tonight with all our big guns due for recalls with the likes of Petr Cech, Laurent Koscielny, Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud and Mesut Ozil coming back in to the squad.

Alexis Sanchez will also return to the starting eleven after being a substitute against Southampton while Theo Walcott will be hoping to keep his place after scoring a hat-trick against his former club.

Danny Welbeck made an excellent return to the starting eleven after bagging two goals against Southampton but Wenger has hinted the striker isn’t ready to start two games in four days so Giroud could be restored up front.

Granit Xhaka serves the second of his four-game ban while Santi Cazorla is our only major injury absentee as he continues to recover from an Achilles injury.

Watford will have on-loan AC Milan forward M’Baye Niang available but he may be on the bench while Costel Pantilimon remains out with a leg injury.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Arsenal 2-0 Watford: We have an excellent recent record against Watford in the league having won our last seven matches against them so we should be confident of extending that run tonight. Our key men should be well rested and as long as we stay focussed, we should be able to secure all three points. I’m going for a 2-0 win.