Arsenal v Watford Betting Tips: Latest odds, team news, preview and predictions

Javi Gracia’s Hornets make the short trip to North London in decent form, but our tipster predicts a comfortable win for Arsene Wenger’s Gunners

Arsenal host Watford on Sunday afternoon at the Emirates Stadium as uncertainty lingers over the future of Arsene Wenger despite Thursday’s 2-0 Europa League victory at AC Milan.

The visiting Hornets were just four points above the Premier League relegation zone when Javi Gracia took over in January, but such is their turnaround that victory in North London would leave them only six points shy of the Gunners.

Latest odds

Only the two Manchester clubs average a better home points per game record than Arsenal, who are 8/15 (1.53) with dabblebet to record an 11th win of the season on their own turf.

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Watford, though, have won their last two meetings with the Londoners and are 11/2 (6.5) to triumph once again, while a draw is 10/3 (4.33).

Team News

The Golden Boys were without as many as nine players through injury in last week’s 1-0 win over West Brom, although Will Hughes made a positive contribution on his return.

Next matches

Hector Bellerin and Alexandre Lacazette will miss out with knee injuries while Santi Cazorla is a long-term absentee, but Nacho Monreal could return from a back problem.

Arsenal to start strongly?

Despite Watford’s good form, they are still looking for just their second away goal of 2018 in all competitions.

By contrast, Arsenal have won all their nine home league games this season against teams outside the top six whilst scoring a combined 28 goals.

In more recent thrashings of Crystal Palace and Everton, they raced to commanding early leads and the -1 first half handicap can be found at 7/2 (4.5).

This selection will land if they reach the interval with an advantage of more than one goal.

Preview and predictions

The price of an Arsenal win and over 1.5 goals is 4/6 (1.67), which will be rewarded if Wenger’s side take three points with a scoreline other than 1-0.

Of the Gunners' 10 wins at the Emirates this season, only one of those has been a 1-0 triumph.