Can Manchester United keep up the pressure on their City rivals with a win over a spirited Watford on Tuesday night?

United really haven’t been the same since they eked out a 0-0 draw against Liverpool after the October international break. Between then and now they’ve lost to Huddersfield, Chelsea and FC Basel, while scraping wins against Tottenham, Benfica and, on Saturday, Brighton (the latter thanks to an own goal from Lewis Dunk). Only a 4-1 romp against Newcastle has seen the club return to the same levels seen in the first couple of months of the season, a game that is notable for seeing Romelu Lukaku’s sole goal in United’s last 10 games in all competitions.



How directly Lukaku’s dry spell maps onto United’s dip in form shows how central the Belgian was in their success. For example, in their opening 7 league games – i.e. the batch before the momentum-sapping first international break – they scored 21 goals, with Lukaku nabbing 7; since then they’ve managed just 7 goals in 6 fixtures (4 of which, remember, came against the Toon). That kind of form has seen Lukaku slip behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the Super Mega PGM spread stakes, at 40-47 to the Big Swede’s 46-53.

Watford, meanwhile, are duking it out with Burnley and Brighton for the honour of being this season’s ‘unlikeliest top 10 finish’. Currently in 8th – a huge improvement on 2016/17’s relegation-flirting 17th – the Hornets could actually displace Liverpool in 6th if they were to beat United by 6 goals or more (realistically a win would see them leapfrog Burnley in 7th).

There was a moment where Watford’s strong start – 4 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss (admittedly 6-0 at home to Man City) in their first 8 games – appeared to be over, with Marco Silva’s side racking up consecutive defeats to Chelsea, Stoke and Everton. However, they’ve rebounded in style, beating West Ham and Newcastle 3-0 and 2-0 respectively in their last 2 league fixtures.

Silva will be looking to avoid a repeat of his last game in charge against a side from Manchester, though it may be tough, with Spreadex offering a Manchester United/Watford (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.65-85 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.7-2.9.