WATFORD will be desperately seeking to boost their chances of beating the drop when they welcome rock-bottom Norwich to Vicarage Road on Tuesday evening.
Nigel Pearson's appointment last December appeared to have set the wheels in motion for an unexpected great escape but a run of just one win from 12 has left the Hornets looking nervously over their shoulder.
Having picked up just one point from a possible 12 since the restart Watford find themselves perched precariously above the Premier League's bottom-three sides.
Having said that, Watford can give themselves some much-needed breathing space away from the top-flight trapdoor should they manage to overcome basement boys Norwich this midweek.
The Canaries edged closer towards a quickfire return to the Championship on Saturday when falling to a damaging 1-0 defeat at home to Brighton.
Consequently, Daniel Farke's side are now seven points from safety and look to be entering last chance saloon territory at Vicarage Road on Tuesday night.
Outright Betting
Watford have avoided defeat in eight of their last 10 top-flight tussles at Vicarage Road and a home win here pays 4/6 with Betfred while a point apiece is priced up at 3/1 with UniBet.
Norwich have won just one of their last 19 league matches away from home and the bookies expect that sequence to be extended on Tuesday night with a Norwich success trading at 19/4 with Bet 365.
Betting Angles
This looks like a tricky fixture to tackle from a betting perspective given that Watford have fallen to defeat in each of their last three fixtures while Norwich have failed to take any points from their last five Premier League outings.
What's more, both teams have found goals hard to come by since the restart with Watford scoring a mere two goals in four games while Norwich have failed to notch in four attempts since the resumption.
With that in mind a low scoring affair could be in store at Vicarage Road and that could see value lie in the 10/11 (Coral) on offer for under 2.5 goals on Tuesday evening.
Indeed, those odds take appeal, however, given what's at stake coupled with the fact that Antony Taylor is taking charge of this crunch clash I'm going to delve into the card markets.
Not only is this a huge game at the bottom of the table but it's also a battle between two of the most ill-disciplined sides in the Premier League and a combination that has caught my eye is Norwich to receive two or more cards and Norwich to take two or more corners at 4/5 (Bet 365).
Taking the above -mentioned angle would have paid out in the Canaries clash at the Emirates last midweek and given that Farke and Co are now in must-win territory I'm happy to back the visitors to collect a couple of cards in this battle, not to mention games involving Norwich this season have featured 11.6 corners on average.
In considering who will come out on top on Tuesday evening I suspect that this will be a closely-fought contest but if pushed I would back the Hornets to boost their bid to beat the drop by picking up what could prove to be a priceless three points.
Watford have superior attacking options at their disposal and the Hornets have kept five clean sheets in their nine home games under Pearson's watch and I suspect they will have enough to squeeze out goal-shy Norwich in this relegation six-pointer.
An outright Watford win at 4/6 (Bet 365) looks slightly short so for reasons discussed above I'm going to add at least one Norwich card to nudge the price up to a much-more enticing Even-Money with Bet 365.
This English Premier League match between Watford and Norwich will be played on Jul 7, 2020 and kick off at 18:00. Check below for our tipsters best Watford vs Norwich prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
