Stoke vs Watford Betting Tips

Despite some impressive acquisitions in the transfer market Stoke failed to make an impact in the opening few weeks of the season.

Defeats against Liverpool, West Brom, and Arsenal along with draws against Spurs, Norwich, and Leicester saw them without a win after six Premier League games.

But the long awaited return of last season’s star player Bojan seems to have lit a fire in the Stoke squad.

The former Barcelona striker was ruled out at the start of 2015 with a cruciate ligament injury, but he scored a goal in his first start since his injury in their 2-2 draw against Leicester.

He has since scored another and been involved in the majority of Stoke’s attacks as they have secured three Premier League wins in a row.

This has lifted them to a more respectable 11^th position in the league with 12 points from their opening nine games. Watford have two less points than the hosts and sit in 15^th place.

Both teams will be missing a few faces as they line up for this game. Long term Watford absentees Lloyd Doyley and Joel Ekstrand are now joined on the sidelines by Jose Jurado, whilst Stoke are expected to be without Mame Biram Diouf, Shay Given, and Ryan Shawcross.

Watford started their Premier League campaign with three draws on the trot against Everton, West Brom, and Southampton.

They put up a good fight against Manchester City in their first defeat of the season, and then went on to win back to back games against Swansea and Newcastle.

These wins saw them score their first goals since the opening day of the season, and the new boys looked to have overcome a scoring demon. But since then they have only scored once in their last three games, picking up one point from an available nine.

Stoke are without a doubt in the better form coming into this fixture, and I think they have what it takes to take all three points on Saturday. Odds of 21/20 for a home win look really good value as well.