Watford

Watford boss Roy Hodgson has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League match against Aston Villa.

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• On the disruption caused by storm Eunice, Hodgson said: "The idea of taking the players onto a field today is totally out of the question. As far as a journey is concerned, we were planning to leave mid-afternoon, we might have to put that back a couple of hours."

• Two members of the squad will have fitness tests before traveling to the Midlands.

• On long-term injuries, Peter Etebo returned to full training this week and Nicolas Nkoulou is hoping to be back with the Hornets squad within the next couple of weeks.

• Hodgson described Saturday's opponents Aston Villa as a "potent attacking force" and added: "They've been a good team for a long while."

• On Villa manager Steven Gerrard, he said: "He has shown that he has the makings of a really, really top manager and coach in the future."

Mark Lawrenson takes on pianist, singer-songwriter and Aston Villa fan Reuben James in the latest round of Premier League predictions.

Lawro's prediction: 2-1

Aston Villa were surprisingly passive in their defeat by Newcastle last weekend. Yes they were a bit unlucky to have a goal ruled out by VAR over such a marginal offside, but their threat really fizzled out afterwards.

In fairness to Newcastle, that was partly because they managed to keep Coutinho quiet, which not many teams have managed since he joined Villa last month.

No doubt Watford boss Roy Hodgson will try to come up with a plan to do the same, but he also needs to find a way of scoring.

The Hornets haven't managed a goal in any of his three games in charge - and even if they break their duck on Saturday, at the moment it's hard to see where their next win is coming from.

Reuben's prediction: 3-1 to the Villa, with a Philippe Coutinho brace.

Jacob Ramsey's performances have lit a fire in the hearts of all Villa fans since he came through the ranks but Coutinho, with his vision and the passes he picks out, is world class - and he's ours.

Find out how Lawro and Reuben think the rest of the weekend's fixtures will go

Alistair Bruce-Ball, Chris Sutton and Statman Dave discuss whether Harry Kane will eventually live up to his xG, as well as who to triple captain, in Gameweek 26.

BBC Radio 5 Live Drive presenter Tony Livesey also pops by to play Sutton Death against Chris and talk about his beloved Burnley.

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

Watford face Aston Villa in their next Premier League fixture on Saturday, but who will make it into Roy Hodgson's starting XI?

The Hornets are without a win since November and are now five points from safety in the table, so who are you backing to turn around their fortunes?

It's time to select your Watford XI to face Aston Villa

Watch all the highlights from Saturday's five matches in the Premier League, including wins for Everton, Brighton and Manchester City.

Stream on iPlayer now

Geoff Doyle, BBC Three Counties Radio

There was a moment when Watford got on top against Brighton. Certainly not in the first half where the visitors had impressively passed them off the pitch with the Hornets somewhat surprisingly set up defensively for a match like this.

It was just after the break when Ismaila Sarr and Imran Louza had been introduced. Hope was restored and it felt like Watford had a chance of getting something from the game. Emmanuel Dennis hit the crossbar. The supporters had something to cheer about. It didn’t last very long.

No doubt sensing it, Brighton’s bright young manager Graham Potter countered it and brought on two central midfielders to add to Adam Lallana and Jakub Moder already in there and the Seagulls got on top again slicing through Watford’s midfield two.

One couldn’t help enviously watching on and wishing Potter was in the other dugout. We know Roy Hodgson is a short-term appointment. And Potter is exactly the type Watford need when Hodgson leaves at the end of the season and in all likelihood the Hornets are back in the Championship.

A young hungry manager who has earned his stripes in lower league football. A manager who has built and developed his own attractive style of play; one which after two consolidating seasons in the Premier League is about to finish in a top ten position.

After Newcastle’s weekend win Watford are now six points from safety. The doom and gloom at Vicarage Road needs to be lifted which is why the next management appointment is so crucial.

Hornets fans missed being there for the wins in the Championship promotion season due to Covid. Instead they’ve had two successive seasons of defeats and poor performances. It’s grim and they’re rightly fed up. Management stability would help and one like Potter would be nice.

Image source, Getty Images

• Watford have lost six consecutive home league games for the first time since August to October 1990, a run which also included a defeat by Brighton.

• The Seagulls have lost just one of their last 12 away games in the Premier League, all coming in 2021-22 (won four, drawn seven) – no side has lost fewer away games in the top flight this season (1).

• Watford haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last 17 home Premier League matches, equalling the record Premier League run without a home clean sheet - also Sunderland (2003-05), Blackpool (2010-11), West Brom (2010-11) and Wolves (2011-12).

• Neal Maupay scored his 26th Premier League goal for Albion – the joint-highest tally for the club in the competition alongside Glenn Murray.

Image source, Getty Images

Alex Bysouth, BBC Sport

Graham Potter insists Brighton are not thinking about Europe but if the Seagulls continue their current form, they will soon be in contention.

The visitors dominated possession against Watford at Vicarage Road but it took a moment of magic from Neal Maupay to open the scoring, curling a looping effort into the far corner from Tariq Lamptey's cross.

Brighton have only lost four Premier League fixtures so far this campaign - a record only bettered by Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea - and are enjoying their longest unbeaten streak in the top flight.

Watford boss Roy Hodgson, who took a call from former Hornets chairman Elton John earlier this week, has only been in charge a little over two weeks but no doubt will be increasingly worried about his side's lack of goals.

Watford are yet to score since he arrived and now find themselves six points from safety.

Brighton manager Graham Potter, speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "One of our better performances in terms of controlling the game away as much as you can in the Premier League. Apart from a 15-minute spell in the second half, I thought we were in a good place in the game. It is not easy to create chances against Roy's teams. The personality of the players was really good.

"It was a fantastic finish from Neal [Maupay]. I was sat down and it wasn't the easiest of views. It looked a really good finish from a nice period of play. You have to wait for the right time to attack. It was a good ball from Tariq and a nice goal.

"We reacted well throughout the game. When we lost the ball we reacted well. We passed it with patience and, when we could, with a purpose. It is not easy. The boys had courage and personality.

"It is nice for the fans to enjoy their day. All we do is go to Old Trafford on Tuesday and to get three points and play well. We are looking forward. We respect the competition and table. We are in a good position. We want more points. This is a hungry group."

Watford boss Roy Hodgson, speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "In the first half we didn't play anywhere near as well as I was expecting. Still a bit unfortunate to go in 1-0 down as we were still not conceding a lot of goal chances. We were better at the start of the second half but still without creating the threat or goal chances we needed. The game gets put to bed with a scrambled goal from a corner. We were hoping for a lot and start a revival. So now we go to the next game and hope we can start it then.

"When the goal goes in just before half-time it is the worst possible moment. If we go in at 0-0 and maybe make one or two points to the players we might have given ourselves a better platform. But we were doing that from the platform of 1-0 down. In the end, putting lots of attacking players on might cost us with counter-attacks. And that is what happened.

"Everyone at the club thinks a lot of Ismaila [Sarr]. I've not had much chance to work with him, but I know of him from watching Watford games. We know what a good player he is and have to hope his talent and skill will help us in this battle for survival.

"It [his track record in the past] puts me in good stead going forward. But I need a group of players with the same resilience and ability to come over disappointments. That will be our message, I can point to passages in my past where it has worked. But the only people who will get us out of this are the players and they are going to need a lot of mental strength going forward. It is a lot of defeats in 23 games and we need some wins."

Image source, BBC Sport

We're bringing you live text and radio commentary of Watford v Brighton & Hove Albion, plus two other Premier League games from 15:00 GMT.

Follow all the action here

Match report and reaction will be on this page later

Roy Hodgson sticks with the same Watford side beaten 1-0 at West Ham in midweek, with Ismaila Sarr named on the bench after returning from his Africa Cup of Nations victory with Senegal.

Watford XI: Foster, Femenia, Cathcart, Samir, Kamara, Kucka, Sissoko, Kayembe, Cleverley, King, Dennis.

Image source, BBC Sport

Brighton make two changes following last Saturday's FA Cup defeat at Tottenham, with Joel Veltman and Danny Welbeck replacing Yves Bissouma and Solly March, who are both on the bench.

Leandro Trossard and Alexis Mac Allister also return to the squad following their absences with Covid-19.

Brighton XI: Sanchez, Lamptey, Veltman, Webster, Dunk, Cucurella, Gross, Lallana, Moder, Maupay, Welbeck.

Image source, BBC Sport

For this weekend's Premier League predictions, Mark Lawrenson takes on American Night actor Jeremy Piven.

Lawro's prediction: 1-1

Watford have not scored in either of their games since Roy Hodgson took charge, but he won't be too bothered about that right now. His first priority was shutting the back door because they were conceding far too many before he arrived.

There won't be many goals about in this game either and, because it's Brighton, it's going to be a draw, isn't it? That's what the Seagulls do.

Jeremy's prediction: 1-1

Find out how Lawro and Jeremy think the rest of the weekend's fixtures will go

Watford's Africa Cup of Nations winner Ismaila Sarr returned to training on Friday and could make his first appearance for the club since November.

January signing Samuel Kalu awaits his debut, while Rob Elliot is fit after injury and Kwadwo Baah has recovered from a fractured ankle.

Leandro Trossard and Alexis Mac Allister are available for Brighton after recovering from Covid-19.

Enock Mwepu and Jeremy Sarmiento are still missing through injury.

Does Sarr make your Hornets starting XI?

Pick your Seagulls starting line-up

Geoff Doyle, BBC Three Counties Radio

The numbers don’t look good for Watford - 15 points after 22 games is relegation form.

To stay up Watford are going to need something like 23 points from their 16 remaining games; six or seven wins. Considering they haven’t won in their past 10 and have picked up two points from a possible 30 this seems unlikely. But there is some hope.

In Roy Hodgson’s two matches in charge, they’ve only conceded one fortunate deflected goal. The Hornets are competitive, whereas before Hodgson this was not the case in many matches.

Admittedly, the style is pretty conservative where they’ve managed to suck the life out of the other team - but it’s worked defensively.

Of course, Watford now need to score goals. So Hodgson has to find the balance between keeping a tight shape and being more expansive in attack.

Much could depend on Ismaila Sarr. The Senegal Africa Cup of Nations winner is on his own at the top level in this Watford squad.

Joao Pedro could get there with his obvious talent and potential and Emmanuel Dennis isn’t far off it. But Sarr is a special player and if Watford are to stay up it’s him who’s likely to be the difference.

He’s only just returned from celebrating with his country and trained at London Conley for just one day. But Hodgson will surely have to play him against Brighton, such is the need for victories.

Alistair Bruce-Ball, Chris Sutton and Statman Dave are back for your weekly dose of fantasy football advice in the Fantasy 606 podcast.

You’ll hear from fixture guru Ben Crellin, plus former Republic of Ireland international Andy Reid pops by to play Sutton Death.

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

• Watford haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last 16 home Premier League matches and conceding in this game will see them equal the record, standing at 17 matches and jointly-held by four teams: Sunderland (2003-05), Blackpool (2010-11), West Brom (2010-11) and Wolves (2011-12).

• Brighton have lost just one of their last 13 Premier League games against promoted sides (won six, drawn six), keeping a clean sheet in each of their last five since a 1-0 loss at West Brom in February 2021.

• Watford have lost their last five home top flight matches, only having two longer home losing runs in their Football League history: a nine-game run between December 1971 and March 1972 and a six-game run between August and October 1990.

• Brighton have drawn 12 of their 22 Premier League matches so far this season, the joint-most by a side at this stage of a campaign, along with Ipswich Town in 1992-93. Their last six draws have all ended 1-1, with the Seagulls coming from behind to draw in each of those games.

Image source, Getty Images

Watford boss Roy Hodgson says it was a "privilege" to speak with former Hornets chairman Sir Elton John and will add that to his list of after-dinner anecdotes.

Hodgson took a call from Sir Elton before his first game in charge last Saturday against Burnley and said it was "another good moment in my life".

"The word legend is used a bit too too often," he said. "But if you want someone who you can call a legend, that's Sir Elton - and no-one can counter me in that."

When asked about his favourite song, Hodgson said he "likes them all" and is "into the ballads".

Image source, Getty Images

Roy Hodgson says the Watford fans “have a big role to play” as he prepares for his first home game as Hornets boss against Brighton.

The 74-year-old has sat in the away dugout at Vicarage Road on many occasions and is looking forward to the backing of the home crowd.

“It’s very reassuring to know that here the home fans really back their team and are behind them,” he said. “The fans have a really big role to play.”

Hodgson also believes the supporters will see his Watford team are fully committed to trying to stay in the Premier League, but does not think home form is vital.

“It’s too easy to say home games will decide it as that might not be the case,” he said. “Supporters will be happy if we’re picking up the points away from home.

“But one thing they won’t be able to criticise is our level of effort or commitment in the next few months. Whether the players always play as well as we would like, the desire and wanting to do the job will be there.

“I think our supporters will have enough common sense to be patient with us and give us the backing we need to do the job.”

Joe Bradshaw, BBC Sport

Roy Hodgson has been speaking to the media before Watford’s game with Brighton on Saturday.

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Ismaila Sarr should return to training tomorrow and Hodgson is looking forward to speaking with him: “I’ll need to meet him, congratulate him and then see how ready he is to play for us again.”

• Hodgson says that points are more important than performances with Watford’s league position: “In most games you can find a positive or two but we need results more than anything. Even if you don’t have a reason to be disappointed with how the team played, without a result, it’s not a good moment.”

• He is not targeting particular fixtures for points: “We don’t see it as a case of just taking points against teams around us. Only points will improve our position and when they don’t come, we analyse where we could have done better and prepare for the next game.”

• On his first game at Vicarage Road: “It’s very reassuring to know the fans really back the team here. Our fans have a big role to play this season and I know they will play their part."

• On Graham Potter’s success at Brighton: “He’s outstandingly good who handles every aspect of the job well. The club has established itself very well in this league.”