The bounce-back club: Chelsea seek win after loss for third time against hot Hornets

It’s been a grim, though not universally so, last month for Chelsea.

They were well beaten by an excellent Leicester side on their home patch, just two weeks after becoming the first side to stop the Manchester City juggernaut.

Legitimate questions are being asked over the long term future of some well paid stars like Olivier Giroud and David Luiz, while Eden Hazard seems exhausted from carrying the team.

On the up side, Ruben Loftus-Cheek seems to find the net fairly frequently for a man who doesn’t regularly start, and the Blues’ points total is actually far better than many anticipated in the first season of a coach with no experience in English football.

The team need as much on the pitch success as they can muster as off the field things are looking ugly, but still the club is on course for a treble of cups.

For Javi Gracia’s Watford, they will be delighted with their league standing. Unbeaten in their last three matches, the Hornets lie a superb seventh, just two points behind Manchester United in sixth.

What’s more, after Chelsea, their next four opponents are Newcastle, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Burnley so there is every chance of that continuing. They helpfully have also drawn non-league Woking in the FA Cup.

Thereafter, Brighton, Everton and Cardiff are three of their next four opponents.

History tells us a goalfest may be looming. The last four EPL matches between these sides have produced 21 goals, with Chelsea narrowly leading 11-10.

Chelsea though have not lost on Boxing day for 15 years with eight wins and five draws since losing 4-2 to Charlton Athletic in 2003. John Terry and Eidur Gudjohnsen were the Blues’ scorers that day after the West Londoners had fallen behind to a Hermann Hreidarsson header in just 45 seconds. Watford won’t recall the date with any fondness. They lost 1-0 at Gillingham that day.

They will however have great memories of the club’s last meeting on February 5th this year. They beat Chelsea 4-1 after
Tiemoué Bakayoko was sent off on the half hour.

Gerard Deulofeu on his debut drew a penalty before half time which Troy Deeney converted. It briefly looked like ten-man Chelsea would accrue something from the game when Hazard equalised with eight minutes to go.

Then the walls fell in and Daryl Janmaat, Deulofeu and Roberto Pereyra netted three inside seven minutes to send the away fans unhappily home from Hertfordshire on the Metropolitan Line.

Chelsea bounced back from both this season’s defeats with convincing victories so there’s always the Blue Backlash to be aware of. This makes the game genuinely had to predict, but here goes anyway:

Prediction: Watford 3 : 3 Chelsea