{"id":187,"date":"2020-07-21T18:52:38","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T18:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/?p=187"},"modified":"2023-10-13T11:19:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T11:19:17","slug":"watford-0-4-man-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/?p=187","title":{"rendered":"Watford 0-4 Man City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id='XO46PDYlRbpIoxXA2juatw' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1257442489' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;' rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'XO46PDYlRbpIoxXA2juatw',sig:'fmcsu1fnXd3kj2FDweYuyp550oVh4g9qAmgbJZ_Qz5Y=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1257442489',caption: false ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watford look in real danger of relegation after an enthused Man City side tore them apart for the second time this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite a very poor campaign, Watford can proudly say that they are record holders: they are the first side in Premier League history to sack three managers in a single season. After the seemingly brutal removal of Nigel Pearson, who had taken them from bottom of the table to near safety, Hayden Mullins became Watford&#8217;s interim head coach (for the second time this season) at very short notice. Not only that, but he was thrust into the deepest of deep ends, as he had to pick a side to play a Man City side who had a point to prove after their disappointing Wembley performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the possible implications of a sudden managerial change can be a lack of defensive cohesion and understanding. Watford certainly seemed guilty of this when, on the half-hour mark, Walker was able to pick out an unmarked Sterling in the box, and he was able to rifle a shot into the top corner to put the Hornets in deep trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poor defensive decision-making was prevalent a few minutes before half-time as well. Some nifty footwork from Sterling forced Will Hughes into a bad challenge, and a penalty was awarded. Foster actually managed to save the initial shot from Sterling, but no Watford defender was able to stop the man in blue from tapping in the rebound for his second on his 200th start for the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were a few chances early in the second half, with Foster making good saves against Jesus and De Bruyne, and it was clear to see that more goals were coming. De Bruyne played a lovely pass through to Sterling whose shot was saved by the Watford &#8216;keeper, but the rebound fell to a City player yet again &#8211; this time, Phil Foden was on hand to tap into an empty net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The goals didn&#8217;t stop there, though. Just three minutes later, De Bruyne whipped in a delicious free-kick, and Aymeric Laporte was free to head home for his first goal since May 2019. De Bruyne&#8217;s assist put him just one assist behind Thierry Henry&#8217;s record, which he will have a chance to break against Norwich on the final day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gabriel Jesus managed to put on into the net right at the death, but Watford will have been relieved to see the linesman&#8217;s flag go up to limit the damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watford will be very fearful of the drop after their goal difference was slashed today. They will need to hope that Aston Villa do not win their remaining two games, and they themselves must win against Arsenal on Sunday. Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola will be happy that he has seen a stark improvement from his side. Despite having nothing to play for in the league, the blues will hope to play like this against Real Madrid when the Champions League returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And with Watford now having lost 6-0, 8-0 and 4-0 in their last three games against Man City, they will not be looking forward to playing them again next season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although, with their survival hopes not simply being in their hands anymore, they may not even have to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Player Ratings<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Watford<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ben Foster &#8211; 7<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adrian Mariappa &#8211; 3.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christian Kabasele &#8211; 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Craig Dawson &#8211; 5.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kiko Femenia &#8211; 3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tom Cleverley &#8211; 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Abdoulaye Doucoure &#8211; 5.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Will Hughes &#8211; 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ismaila Sarr &#8211; 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roberto Pereyra &#8211; 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Troy Deeney &#8211; 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Subs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danny Welbeck &#8211; 5.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nathaniel Chalobah &#8211; 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adam Masina &#8211; N\/A<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Man City<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ederson &#8211; 7<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kyle Walker &#8211; 7.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eric Garc\u00eda &#8211; 7.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aymeric Laporte &#8211; 8.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jo\u00e3o Cancelo &#8211; 8<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Rodri &#8211; 9.5 (MOTM)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kevin De Bruyne &#8211; 8.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phil Foden &#8211; 8<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bernardo Silva &#8211; 7.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raheem Sterling &#8211; 9<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gabriel Jesus &#8211; 7.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Subs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oleksandr Zinchenko &#8211; 6.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Riyad Mahrez &#8211; 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John Stones &#8211; 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By Jed Vine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Watford look in real danger of relegation after an enthused Man City side tore them apart for the second time this season. Despite a very poor campaign, Watford can proudly say that they are record holders: they are the first side in Premier League history to sack three managers in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[191],"tags":[16,3,9,30,4,47,17,8,45,48],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","tag-english-football","tag-football","tag-football-review","tag-man-city","tag-premier-league","tag-relegation","tag-review","tag-soccer","tag-watford","tag-watford-0-man-city-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207,"href":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jedvine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}