Watford

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• Burnley have won just one of their past 22 Premier League games (D10 L11), and have scored just two goals in their past seven matches.

• Watford kept their first league clean sheet of the season in what was their 21st game – only Blackburn in 2011-12 (28 games) and Norwich in 2011-12 (22 games) have taken longer to record their first shutout of a Premier League campaign.

• Roy Hodgson has failed to win his first Premier League game in charge with each of his past five clubs (D3 L2), since winning with Blackburn against Derby in August 1997 (1-0).

• No Premier League side is on a current longer winless run than Burnley and Watford, with both sides failing to win their past nine games in the competition.

• Watford’s Joao Pedro is 54 years and 48 days younger than Hodgson, the biggest gap in age for any player starting a match under a manager in Premier League history.

Simon Stone, BBC Sport

In the end, this game was a match neither side wanted to lose - and needed to get something out of as a platform to launch a survival push.

For Watford, it came in the form of a first clean sheet of the season. Indeed, it was a first in 31 Premier League matches.

For Burnley, there were signs that Wout Weghorst’s partnership with Maxwel Cornet could solve their goalscoring problems.

It may be a while before we find out if either of these two factors can help in a relegation battle. But Sean Dyche and Roy Hodgson still have time.

Watford manager Roy Hodgson: "It's a really difficult place to come. I don't think many will look forward to games against Burnley. I thought we probably did enough today to come away with a victory. I'm pleased with the way the players went about their work. They showed great spirit, great determination and I think they showed everybody that they still care very much and they rolled their sleeves up. If you don't work hard here at Burnley, you get nothing."

On the clean sheet: "It is significant. We know unless we defend in the way we did today - being compact and aggressive in our pressing - then you won't get clean sheets in the Premier League. I thought this was a stern test after only 10 days with the players and I thought they dealt with it very well."

On the penalty shout: "I know the players close to the incident felt it was but from where I was, on the other side of the field, I couldn't see. It's one of those things that happen in football. You have to get over those injustices. I think the players at Watford deserve an awful lot of praise in that respect today."

On the relegation battle: "When you fall behind in this league you are playing catch-up. The only way to recover is win matches. We are not underestimating the task. It has given me a lot of encouragement that this time does have the fight, the ability to organise themselves and come away from Burnley with points."

January signing Wout Weghorst makes his full debut for Burnley, who make just two changes from the draw at Arsenal.

Maxwel Cornet and Dale Stephens also come in. Josh Brownhill, Jay Rodriguez and Matej Vydra drop out.

Burnley XI: Pope, Pieters, Tarkowski, Mee, Roberts; McNeil, Stephens, Westwood, Lennon; Cornet, Weghorst.

Subs: Hennessey, Norris, Lowton, Cork, Rodriguez, Collins, Bardsley, Long, Thomas

Image source, BBC Sport

Roy Hodgson has made four changes for his Watford bow after the defeat to Norwich.

Ben Foster, Ken Sema, Craig Cathcart and Jurej Kucka replace Daniel Bachmann, Christian Kabasele, Emmanuel Dennis, and Tom Cleverley.

Watford XI: Foster; Sema, Kamara, Cathcart, Femenia; Samir, Sissoko, Kucka, Kayembe; King, Joao Pedro

Subs: Bachmann, Ngakia, Ekong, Louza, Cleverley, Mesina, Fletcher, Kabasele, Hernandez

Image source, BBC Sport

Mark Lawrenson takes on rapper and Manchester United fan Mist in the latest round of predictions.

Image source, BBC Sport

Lawro's prediction: 1-1

This is a huge game at the bottom of the table, and I don't think it will be pretty - not that it matters too much for either team now.

Watford are in this predicament because they have changed their manager so often, hoping that one of their appointments works. It's a plan that really hasn't paid off.

What they will at least get now Roy Hodgson is on board is better organisation. Everyone who has played under him talks about how he is very good at filling spaces and plugging gaps in teams.

So, I'd expect them to be a lot better defensively - they will have to be, if they are going to stay up.

Burnley's problems are different and stem from a lack of investment in their squad, but they have signed 6ft 6in Dutch striker Wout Weghorst to replace Chris Wood, for about half of the £25m they got for Wood from Newcastle.

Weghorst has scored plenty of goals in the Bundesliga for Wolfsburg, with a strike-rate of about one every two games. If he keeps that up in the Premier League, then that's a decent bit of business - but ultimately it will only be a good deal if the Clarets stay up.

Both of these sides have gone a long time without winning - Burnley's only league victory this season was on 30 October, while the last time Watford collected three points was 20 November.

As much as they will both be desperate to end that wait, there is always a fear factor involved in these kind of games, because they are both thinking: "We mustn't lose." And that might be the end result.

Martin's prediction: 0-1

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

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Burnley boss Sean Dyche could hand deadline-day signing Wout Weghorst his debut.

Maxwell Cornet is also available after Africa Cup of Nations duty with Ivory Coast.

Johann Gudmundsson is out as he recovers from appendicitis and Charlie Taylor faces a late fitness test. Ashley Barnes remains a long-term absentee.

Watford will be without the suspended Emmanuel Dennis and Ismaila Sarr, who remains at the Africa Cup of Nations with finalists Senegal.

Meanwhile, Samuel Kalu could make his debut for the Hornets and William Troost-Ekong, Adam Masina and Imran Louza are all back from international duty.

Nicolas Nkoulou, Kwadwo Baah and Peter Etebo are all likely to miss out because of injury.

Would Weghurst go straight into your Clarets starting XI?

Who makes your Watford team?

Geoff Doyle, BBC Three Counties Radio

Roy Hodgson's first media conference this week had a sense of deja vu about it. Javi Gracia, Quique Sanchez Flores (the second time), Hayden Mullins, Nigel Pearson and Claudio Ranieri have all been there before.

Brought in by the club to try to rescue the Hornets from Premier League relegation. What's there to say different? Like all of them before, he'll give it a good go and hope to succeed. But like those others, he'll know it won't be easy.

This could be the hardest of the lot though. Gracia was brought in when Watford had quite a few points on the board back in 2018. Flores arrived much earlier in the season in 2019. Mullins - on two occasions - was just holding the fort and there was little pressure. Pearson was appointed in early December and of course Ranieri was handed the honours in October.

Hodgson has been left to save Watford with spring approaching, 18 games to do it in and with the club six points off the point-per-game objective. The former England boss doesn't have time on his side. But there's no magic coaching wand and it will take him time to get his methods across.

Boring could be good under Hodgson. The Hornets have been too open in the Premier League and it's why they have lost 14 of 20 games and conceded in every one. The new manager has to halt that final stat like all the others tried to; the question is how does he go about that?

Organisation, repetitions of play in training, concentration on shape, awareness, player responsibility on the pitch, understanding, going back to basics. It all sounds fairly obvious and all the previous head coaches will have tried similar stuff. But will they have concentrated on all that as much as Hodgson surely will?

If he can find the right formula then he might do what lots of people don't think is possible and keep Watford in the top flight.

Image source, Getty Images

Before Saturday's huge Premier League game between Burnley and Watford, we've put together a quiz based on the two teams' stats.

Can you score full marks? Have a go here

Roy Hodson says Saturday afternoons "have been the worst part of retirement" as he prepares for his first game in charge of Watford against Burnley tomorrow.

The Hornets kick off at Turf Moor at 18:00 GMT and Hodgson is relieved to have his Saturdays consumed by football once again.

"I can't say I've been waking up every day and missing football," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "But Saturday afternoons have been the worst.

"That's the time you feel you should be involved in football, but it didn't feel right to be ringing round my friends and trying to get tickets."

The 74-year-old has a four-month contract at Watford with a specific remit to keep them in the Premier League and he admits he has not thought about whether to extend his stay at Vicarage Road.

"I have to say there will be a lot more intellectual thought going into that decision," he said. "The only thing I always say is that if you have football in your blood, you should never say never."

Listen to Gary Richardson's full interview with Hodgson from 2'25'58 on BBC Sounds

Image source, PA Media

The Hornets' average of 26 games per manager is the lowest in Premier League history, among teams to have played more than two seasons in the competition.

• This is Burnley’s first Premier League home game in 55 days, since a goalless draw with West Ham on 12th December.

• This is the fourth meeting between the bottom two sides in the Premier League this season, and first not to involve Norwich City. The bottom side is unbeaten in all three so far, winning one (Arsenal against Norwich) and drawing the other two (Norwich at Burnley and Newcastle against Norwich).

• Since beating Manchester United 4-1 in November, Watford have taken just one point from their last 24 available in the Premier League (D1 L7), with the Hornets shipping 20 goals in that run.

• Watford have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their past 30 Premier League games. In the competition’s history, only West Bromwich Albion have had a longer run without a shutout (34 between August 2010 and May 2011).

• Despite sitting bottom of the table, Burnley have conceded fewer goals (27) than any other side currently in the bottom half, albeit also having played fewer games. However, only Norwich (13) have scored fewer goals than the Clarets in the Premier League this term (16).

Time to give yourself the edge on your fantasy football rivals.

With the January transfer window out the way, Alistair Bruce-Ball, Chris Sutton and Statman Dave discuss the Premier League's new arrivals and whether you should be signing them up for your team.

Listen to the full podcast on BBC Sounds

The Premier League has announced the latest round of fixture rearrangements to help address the backlog of postponements.

Full details and kick-off times are below (all GMT):

Wednesday, 23 February

• Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur (19:30)

• Watford v Crystal Palace (19:30)

• Liverpool v Leeds United (19:45)

Thursday, 24 February 2022

• Arsenal v Wolverhampton Wanderers (19:45)

Image source, PA Media

Former Scotland and Chelsea winger Pat Nevin says the job Roy Hodgson did at Crystal Palace was "astonishing" and suggested he could be the man to lead Watford to safety.

The new Hornets boss spoke to the media for the first time on Wednesday and said he "could not resist" the challenge presented at Vicarage Road.

"When he went into Palace, they were a mess," Nevin said on BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast. "The change he made in such a quick period of time staggered me.

"Watford need a man who can resurrect from the depths and in Hodgson they're looking at a guy that can do that."

Ex-Liverpool midfielder Charlie Adam agreed, suggesting training might not be exciting under Hodgson but it's what the players need.

"He'll be all about shape, shape, shape," said Adam. "They need a manager to organise them because they are terrible at the back.

"Roy will do his best and the group of players need to buy into what he's trying to do."

Listen to the full discussion on Hodgson and Watford from 17'05 on BBC Sounds

George Cummins, BBC Sport

Roy Hodgson is happy to be back - but he didn’t expect to be back so soon.

The former England manager thought he would be congratulating “friend” Claudio Ranieri and the Pozzo family on keeping Watford in the Premier League when the Italian was appointed in November, but he finds himself in the hotseat now with 18 games to go.

“Claudio was the unfortunate man to be on the end of a bad run of results and the board have decided they wanted to make a further change," he said.

"It has opened the door for me to come in and do what I will try to do in the circumstances - that is to make sure the team is ready to stay in the Premier League at the end of the season."

But how confident is he that the Hornets will avoid the drop?

"I am confident the work we will do will have an affect. Of course, the proof of the pudding will always be in the eating. This particular league in terms of relegation? It’s a dog fight."

Has he spoken to Elton John yet?

“Elton is someone I would love to speak to. If ever he feels like he wants to speak to me, I shall be available at any hour of the day and night."

And what about his relationship with Harry the Hornet... have the two had peace talks?

“I don’t know why I was ever given the question in the first place, quite frankly. What has it got to do with me?" he said.

He then joked: "If Sam Allardyce and Harry the Hornet have had a falling out, hopefully they have sorted it out."

Image source, Getty Images

Hodgson says he couldn't resist the job offer from Watford, which he admitted came out of the blue.

"It was an exciting offer I received," he said. "A club that decided they need a new coach for the last four months of the season.

"I wasn’t expecting any calls from Watford, or anyone else for that matter, but when the call arrived and it was made clear I was the man they wanted to do the job, it was a very exciting job to accept. There are good players at the club.

"I've had six or seven months away. The football pitch and the thought of working every day with players was something I knew I would find hard to resist.

"I thought I would find it easier to resist than I have found it. That’s why I was never going to turn down. It was the siren call from a mermaid as the sailor passes by on his ship.

"It was out of the blue but I'm glad it came because I am ready."

On whether Watford players have reacted well since his arrival, Hodgson said: "I’ve been very happy with their response - the enthusiasm and the work ethic is good.

"When it comes to if you are getting your message across, we’ll find out in the next weeks and the games. I’m not certain Ray and I could have done an awful lot more in this time. But it's going to take more than eight or nine days to say we are satisfied.

"I had no input whatsoever on any of the signings and I don’t intend to have any input in whether the squad has to be reduced, which I know they have to do.

"One thing I didn’t do was to sit with the board and talk about the signings that need to be made. The signings the club wanted to make, they had made at the start of the transfer window. I’m learning to know them, find out more about them, find out how we can best use them.

"When it comes to transfers you can strike my name off your list in terms of influencing it."