Aston Villa vs Watford

Aston Villa hosts Watford for this round 26 of English Premier League for this Saturday clash at Villa Park in Birmingham. The difference in raw class and recent form is substantial here. Let's take a closer look at the match..

Aston Villa have improved quite a lot under the new manager Steven Gerrard, an ex Liverpool and English national team legend whom the players and fans respect a lot. Aston Villa started the season well but then started playing at a low level and also did not have luck on their side.. As a result, as something needed to be done, they sacked their manager and S. Gerard took over. Aston Villa are surely not a top team in the most competitive league on the planet. They are, however, a lot better than Watford, especially offensively. They still have room room improvement in this sector though as there definitely is talent in the team and I trust Gerard with this challenge. Aston Villa currently occupy the 12th place in the standings but I have raised their power rating reflecting the teams' overall class. At the moment I rate them as the 10th team in the this league, seemingly a little higher than the betting market and most football analysts online.. There seems to be a positive atmosphere in the team and the club has a long-term strategy for the upcoming seasons in place. I do admit that the hosts have not been at their best in the most recent matches but this also seems to have effected the betting market's opinion on them offering my fans a chance to place a good bet on them here. In their most most recent match versus the richest club in the World - Newcastle away from home they definitely would deserved a draw as they created slightly more than the hosts in expected goals - the numbers were 0.75 - 0.85 goals but the final score was 1-0. Let's remember Newcastle, after buying several quality players, have improved quite a lot lately and are a much better than the standings suggest..

This pick is, however, mostly based on my long-term very negative view about Watford who are more like "a circus or a joke" than a serious football club aiming at long-term success. The owner does not seem to have any reasonable strategy for the club's future - at least not in terms of achieving anything on the pitch.. They have changed manager almost an awful lot of times in recent years and have recently hired a true legend Roy Hodgson, 74. I am not saying he is an unskilled manager at all but still do want to question his skills and energy to get results nowadays at this level, in the best football league on the planet.. Most of my fans probably are aware of the fact that teams very often get a big boost when a new manager steps in. However, as I just mentioned, for Watford new manager is "business as usual" so the boost has not really materialized and probably will not in the future either. I was very skeptical about Watford even before the season started and they have been just as messy and unreliable a team as I anticipated.. The started the season surprisingly well but then started to fade a way, as expected. I still rate them as the second worst team in the Premier League and that is their position in the standings as well. Norwich are only slightly worse than them in my power ratings. They have failed to score in their latest four matches and their offensive play has been horrible indeed. In their latest match they played a pretty low-level match versus Brighton losing 0-2 at home and created only 0.45 in expected goals. Before that they lost West Ham away from home without having a true chance and only created a very low 0.30 in expected goals. Before this it was a 0-0 draw against a lowly team Burnley. Some weeks ago they played okay at home versus the worst team in the league, Norwich, but still lost 0-3! A total humiliation! Their relatively weak defense will be tested by improved Villa in front of their great fans today and I think Watford would need a lot of luck not to lose.. Hodgson has a reputation as an expert in defensive tactics but I think he will needs more time even for a small improvement and at the end of the day lame offense is the bigger problem for Watford anyway..They have lost 8 of their latest 10 matches and have won none of these 10!

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英超联赛第26轮阿斯顿维拉主场迎战沃特福德，本周六在伯明翰的维拉公园球场。原始类和最新形式的差异在这里是实质性的。让我们仔细看一看比赛。

阿斯顿维拉在新教练史蒂文·杰拉德的带领下取得了很大的进步。杰拉德是前利物浦和英格兰国家队的传奇人物，球员和球迷都非常尊敬他。阿斯顿维拉赛季开局很好，但随后开始踢低水平的比赛，他们的运气也不好。结果，由于需要做一些事情，他们解雇了他们的经理，杰拉德接管了。阿斯顿维拉肯定不是这个星球上竞争最激烈的联赛中的一支顶级球队。然而，他们比沃特福德好多了，尤其是在进攻上。他们在这个领域仍然有改进的空间，因为球队中确实有天赋，我相信杰拉德能够应对这个挑战。阿斯顿维拉目前在积分榜上排名第12，但我已经提高了他们的实力评级，反映了球队的整体水平。目前，我把他们评为联赛的第10支球队，似乎比博彩市场和网上大多数足球分析师的评级要高一些。在球队中似乎有一种积极的气氛，俱乐部已经为即将到来的赛季制定了长期战略。我承认东道主在最近几场比赛中并没有处于最佳状态，但这似乎也影响了博彩市场对他们的看法，让我的球迷有机会在他们身上下好赌注。在他们最近一场客场对阵世界上最富有的俱乐部纽卡斯尔的比赛中，他们绝对应该得到一场平局，因为他们创造的进球比主队略多——数字是0.75 - 0.85，但最终比分是1-0。让我们记住纽卡斯尔，在购买了几名优秀的球员后，最近有了很大的进步，比排名显示的要好得多。

然而，这个选择主要是基于我长期以来对沃特福德的非常负面的看法，他们更像是一个“马戏团或一个笑话”，而不是一个严肃的足球俱乐部，旨在获得长期的成功。老板似乎对俱乐部的未来没有任何合理的策略——至少没有在球场上取得任何成就。近年来，他们换了很多次主教练，最近又聘请了一个真正的传奇人物，74岁的罗伊·霍奇森。我并不是说他是一个缺乏技巧的教练，但我仍然想质疑他的技能和精力，在这个级别，在这个星球上最好的足球联赛中取得成绩。我的大多数球迷可能都意识到这样一个事实:当一个新教练出现时，球队往往会得到很大的提升。然而，就像我刚才提到的，对于沃特福德的新教练来说，一切如常，所以这种刺激还没有真正实现，而且将来可能也不会。甚至在赛季开始之前，我就对沃特福德持怀疑态度，他们就像我预期的那样是一支混乱和不可靠的球队。赛季的开始出人意料的好，但随后就像预期的那样开始走下坡路。我仍然把他们评为英超第二差的球队，这也是他们在积分榜上的位置。在我看来，诺维奇只比他们差一点点。他们在最近的四场比赛中都没有进球，他们的进攻确实很糟糕。在最近的一场比赛中，他们与布莱顿进行了一场相当低级别的比赛，在主场0-2失利，只创造了0.45个预期进球。在此之前，他们在主场失去了西汉姆，没有真正的机会，只创造了非常低的0.30的预期进球。在此之前，这是一场0-0的平局，对手是地位较低的伯恩利队。几周前，他们在主场对阵联盟最差的球队诺维奇时表现不错，但还是以3 - 0输掉了比赛!总羞辱!今天在他们伟大的球迷面前，他们相对薄弱的防守将受到维拉的考验，我认为沃特福德要想保持不败需要很大的运气。霍奇森有名声防守战术方面的专家,但我认为他会需要更多的时间即使很小的进步在一天结束的蹩脚的进攻是沃特福德的更大的问题。他们失去了他们最新的10场比赛投8中,赢得了这些10 !