Southampton vs Watford Preview

Watford will travel to St. Mary’s Stadium this Tuesday to face Southampton in the FA Cup fourth-round replay.

Both sides played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Vicarage Road last week with a late goal by substitute Stuart Armstrong cancelling Matheus Martins’ early opener for Watford.

The result extended Southampton’s unbeaten run in all competitions to 22 games (W15, D7). Russell Martin’s side extended that incredible run to 23 games over the weekend beating Rotherham 2-0 to solidify their chances of automatic promotion back to the Premier League.

They will hope to extend that unbeaten run by beating fellow Championship side Watford at home where they are in hot form. The Saints have won their last nine games at St. Mary’s, scoring 4+ goals on five occasions. They also kept six clean sheets in the period proving that they’re not just all about attacking, they also know how to defend.

With a trip to Anfield waiting for them if they navigate this tie, they will be desperate to win. But they will have to exert more energy in this fixture than they have had to in recent head-to-head meetings having failed to beat Watford in their last three competitive meetings (D2, L1).

On the other side Watford enter this tie in poor form. The visitors are winless in their last four games (D3, L1) failing to score in their last two games.

Valérien Ismaël’s side are good travellers. They have not lost away from home since early December, winning four out of their last seven away games (D3). However, the three draws came in their last four away games, showing they aren’t flying as much.

Still, five wins and two draws (L5) in their last 12 visits to this ground shows that if any team can get a result here, it is Watford.