Week Nine – Tuesday – Sport Grill

Blackburn Rovers welcome Watford to Ewood Park as the Sky Bet Championship resumes after an unexpected weekend off.

Victory would see Blackburn go third if Burnley lose away to Preston at Deepdale, whilst Watford can go as high as second with a win as long as events at Deepdale swing in their favour.

Team News

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Daniel Ayala and Scott Wharton are set to return for Blackburn after recovering from calf injuries.

Callum Brittain (muscle) is a doubt but faces a late fitness check.

Watford could be without Hassane Kamara after he suffered a muscle strain in their last outing at Rotherham.

Ken Sema (groin) is a doubt but Jeremy Ngakia (back) is set to be available for selection.

Tom Cleverley (fitness), Imran Louza, Tom Dele-Bashiru (both knee), Rey Manaj and Samuel Kalu (both hamstring) remain absent.

Stat Attack

• Blackburn have won just one of their last seven meetings against Watford (W1, D2, L4).
• Watford have won just one of their last five visits to Ewood Park (W1, D1, L3).
• Both teams have scored in three of their last five meetings at Ewood Park.
• Ben Brereton Diaz has been involved in five goals for Blackburn this season – having produced four goals and one assist in eight appearances.
• Watford have kept just one clean sheet in four away matches this season (D4), which came in a goalless draw at Preston in August 2022.

Prediction

Following their strong start to the campaign, Blackburn have dropped off the boil lately with just one win in their last five matches due to an injury crisis, so Saturday’s postponement might of played into their favour with Ayala and Wharton back to boost defensive options.

Defending though has been Blackburn’s downfall in recent games so improvement will be vital if they’re to get any points out of this game, especially given their attacking quality up front.

Watford meanwhile seem to like drawing their away matches this season but constant draws on the road won’t be helpful come end of season, so I would like to see them show more quality when away from Vicarage Road especially given their fierce in-form front three.

This clash though feels like one which could be openly competitive given the attacking talent within both teams, so a part of my instinct feels like this could be a decent score draw unless Watford can find that away breakthrough edge.

Prediction: Blackburn 1-1 Watford