Watford host Arsenal at Vicarage Road on Monday (Watch live, 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN and online via NBCSports.com), with both teams pushing hard for European qualification.
The Hornets are still flying high after reaching the FA Cup final last weekend, as Javi Gracia’s men will play Manchester City at Wembley on May 18 after their stunning semifinal comeback against Wolves. They are also in a great position to finish seventh and qualify for the Europa League, as Everton, Leicester and Wolves all lost at the weekend.
Unai Emery’s Arsenal lost at Everton last time out, but they followed that up with an impressive defeat of Napoli in the UEFA Europa League quarterfinal first leg and the Gunners are very much in the hunt to finish in the top four.
In team news Watford are without Jose Holebas, Domingos Quina and Tom Cleverley who are all injured, while Arsenal’s Sokratis is serving the first of a two-game suspension after picking up 10 yellow cards and Granit Xhaka is struggling with a groin injury.
What they’re saying...
Javi Gracia on Watford focusing on Europe: “Our final is against Arsenal - not in May. This is the mentality we will keep and then at the end we will see the position and the points. But in this moment, our final is on Monday. My feeling is that the players are really focused on the next game. In this moment, I prefer to keep the same attitude we had during all the season, trying to give importance to the next game.”
Unai Emery on Gracia, Watford: “I know Javi Gracia and above all his teams are very organized with a big commitment to helping each other. They are very difficult teams to battle because defensively they are very strong and this is now at Watford. They are a very organized team, with a big capacity offensively because they create a good movement and a good idea, a good style to take that. I want to play matches against Javi Gracia and Watford because I think they are doing a big season.”
Prediction
This is a big week for Arsenal with the second leg of their Europa League quarterfinal at Napoli on Thursday, then they host Crystal Palace on Sunday. Emery will rotate his squad and Watford will be high on confidence after they reached the FA Cup final for just the second time in club history. I’m calling this a draw. 1-1.
