Arsenal host Watford on Sunday afternoon at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League.
We look at a few stats to predict the match.
Life at Arsenal has been wonderful recently. Mikel Arteta’s men are unbeaten for the last seven matches in the league, and the roadblocks seemed to have lifted. They have moved onto the sixth position in the league with 17 points and surely would love to extend their unbeaten run by defeating Watford with the home advantage being with them.
The Gunners have scored 12 goals now in the league from an xG of 16.57- which they have underperformed so far. But they made a very strong comeback after failing to score anything in the first three matches. Arsenal have conceded only four times in the last seven outings, registering four clean sheets. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been back among goals, while Emile Smith-Rowe and Bukayo Saka have been in great form.
Watford have already brought a managerial change in the like of Claudio Ranieri. Still, since his return to the league, they have won one and lost two, finding themselves in 16th position in the table. They come into the game on the back of a 0-1 loss to Southampton and would look to turn things around.
They have the second-lowest xG in the division of 9.55 but have overperformed it by scoring 12 goals, recently demolishing Everton 5-2. However, they have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their matches, conceding a total of 18 goals, with 10 of them coming in the last five matches. Joshua King and Ismaïla Sarr still pose a lot of threats on counters.
Arsenal’s new tactical approach have seen them play a waiting game, mostly behind the ball, keeping their defensive shape intact for the majority of the time, and hitting teams on counters. Their low PPDA of 14.59 says the same, which is the third-lowest in the league. It has been working for Mikel Arteta and his men pretty well, and they are unlikely to change it.
However, Watford also play a similar kind of game with a PPDA of 14.10, just slightly better than their counterparts. The Hornets have not been able to keep such a strong defensive shape most of the time but have been destructive on counters whenever they have got the chance. The Everton game remains the biggest example of that.
It will be interesting to see how both the managers tweak their tactics and strategies for the upcoming match-up.
We predict a 2-0 victory for the Gunners.