Premier League: Watford vs Chelsea preview

Chelsea will be hoping to bounce back to winning ways when they visit Watford at Vicarage Road on Boxing Day. Last season this fixture was a sad one for the Blues, they got thrashed 4-1 by the Hornets as they conceded three goals in the last six minutes after Eden Hazard's goal leveled the score at 1-1 in the 82nd minute. That result ended a string of three consecutive wins for Chelsea over Watford and was the first success for the Hornets over the Blues since 1999. Overall, Chelsea have won three of the last six direct matches, Watford won one and two were draws. Watford are going though a happy moment, they have won their last two Premier League matches to end a poor streak of six matches without victory. Troy Deeney and Gerard Deulofeu scored in last week's 2-0 victory at West Ham, while the previous victory was a 3-2 over Cardiff at Vicarage Road. Those two wins moved the Hornets up to seventh place in the Premier League table, but a defeat against Chelsea could see them drop into the second half of the rankings. Will Hughes and Sebastian Prodl could make their returns from injury in this match, but Adalberto Penaranda and Andre Gray remain sidelined. Chelsea have produced contradictory results lately, they responded to the surprising 2-1 defeat at Wolves with a fine 2-0 victory over Manchester City, then won 2-1 at Brighton and went past Bournemouth in the League Cup, but last weekend they got beaten 1-0 at home by Leicester. That up and down form relegated them to fourth place in the Premier League table, and leaders Liverpool are now eleven points away. Manager Maurizio Sarri will probably make some changes to his starting eleven following last week's defeat, but he will have to do without injured Andreas Christensen. Victor Moses, Gary Cahill and Alvaro Morata are injury doubts ahead of this match. Probable line-ups: Watford: Foster - Femenia, Cathcart, Kabasele, Holebas - Doucoure, Quina - Capoue, Pereyra - Deeney, Deulofeu Chelsea: Arrizabalaga - Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso - Kante, Jorginho, Barkley - Pedro, Giroud, Hazard My prediction: 1-1 draw, Watford are not an easy team to beat and Chelsea seem somewhat disoriented at the moment. Here are the odds for the match at Bet365: Watford win - 5.25 Draw - 3.80 Chelsea win - 1.75