Cardiff City vs Watford Prediction: Hornets to sting the Bluebirds

Cardiff City will be looking to end a five-game winless streak in the Championship on Saturday (15:00) when they welcome Watford to the Cardiff City Stadium. The Bluebirds have failed to win in their last five matches in the second tier.

Watford have lost just one of their last seven fixtures but they have only won two matches on the road this season. Read on for my Cardiff City vs Watford prediction, featuring the latest match odds and team news.

Cardiff City vs Watford Odds

Cardiff are 6/5 to claim their fifth home win of the season, giving them an implied probability of 45.5%. Watford have won one of their last three away games and are valued at 2/1 to take the three points, which gives them a theoretical chance of 33.3%. The draw can be backed at 12/5 (29.4%).

Both teams to score is on offer at 8/13 and it has struck in five of Watford's nine away matches this term. Over 2.5 goals is priced at 8/11, which has landed in seven of the Hornets' fixtures on the road.

Vakoun Bayo has scored seven times in the league for Watford and he is 6/1 to open the scoring on Saturday.

Football Odds

Team News

Cardiff's attacking options are limited with Aaron Ramsey and Kion Etete sidelined with muscle and leg injuries respectively. Interim boss Omer Riza is likely to go with the same attacking quartet - Callum Robinson, Yakou Meite, David Turnbull and Callum O'Dowda - against the Hornets.

Meite was on the scoresheet inside the opening 10 minutes against Coventry City last week, grabbing his first goal of the campaign. Emmanouil Siopis and Alex Robertson are expected to partner up in midfield again while Perry Ng offer support on the right side from full-back.

Calum Chambers and Dimitrios Goutas should anchor the defence once again for the Bluebirds. Attacking midfielder Rubin Colwill will be looking for a promotion to the starting XI on home soil.

For Watford, Tom Cleverley remains without the services of Angelo Ogbonna and Tom Dele-Bashiru due to injury. The Hornets boss will be frustrated that his side didn't come away with the win at home to Queens Park Rangers last time out (0-0 draw) but his side had plenty of chances, they just weren't clinical enough.

There have only been a couple of occasions where they have been ruthless in front of goal and they were a 3-0 home win over Stoke City and a 6-2 thumping of Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. A lot of their wins have been by slender margins and that is something Cleverley hopes he can sort heading into the festive period.

Festy Ebosele could return to left wing-back having played there in the 1-0 win over Bristol City. Yasser Larouci featured there against the Rs but of course they only managed to come away with a point. Ryan Andrews should hold the spot on the opposite side, while Ryan Porteous, Matty Pollock and Francisco Sierralta are expected to continue as the back three.

Imran Louza and Moussa Sissoko should remain in the engine room, while Bayo and Giorgi Chakvetadze maintain their places in the front three. Edo Kayembe was deployed on the right at the weekend but Kwadwo Baah is expected to return in Cardiff.

Watford to win @ 2/1

They may not have the best away record in the division but I think Watford are good value to claim another three points on the road on Saturday. I know I mentioned above that proficiency in front of goal hasn't been their forte, but I do believe that is a work in progress.

The six-goal showing against Wednesday was a bit of an anomaly, but it showed them that they can be ruthless. Cardiff gave a good account of themselves last weekend but it was Frank Lampard's first game in charge of the Sky Blues, who themselves have been up and down more times than a rollercoaster this year.

I remember catching Watford's last away game at Plymouth Argyle, a game they will feel should've been wrapped up in the first half because they were in complete control. The build-up play is most impressive, they are just lacking the end product to go with it.

There's a good chance for them to have some better joy in front of goal in Cardiff, though, as the Bluebirds have conceded 28 goals already this term - with 11 of them coming at the Cardiff City Stadium.

The hosts' performances have been inconsistent over the past few weeks, and a decent performance tends to be followed by a bad one. So I do think we could see the latter this time around and the visitors can profit.

Vakoun Bayo anytime goalscorer @ 2/1

This man scored a bizarre goal at Argyle - nothing to do with the finish but the fact that the supporters took a long time to realise it had gone in. That was his seventh of the campaign in the league, and now Bayo has gone two games without a goal which makes me think he could be overdue one this weekend.

The forward will be raring to go against Cardiff because their back line has been suspect all season. He has also found most of his success on the road with five of his goals being scored at opposition grounds - four of which came against Wednesday.

Cardiff is Watford's first away game since Argyle a few weeks ago. He hit the mark then, and I fancy his chances against a side who are consistently inconsistent.

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