In my opinion Stoke have really good chances to make at least one point in today's match up.

Both teams without any new absences before today's match. Good information in Stoke camp - key central defender James Chester (18 matches) returns from a one-match ban. That should improve quality of defensive formation. Watford first goalkeeper Ben Foster is still unavailable because of finger injury. Today once again will play Daniel Bachmann (it's his third match at this level).

Stoke lost only once in last 6 matches against Watford. First match of the season between both teams finished with Watford 3:2 home win, but that was very lucky as they scored deciding goal 90+2'.

Watford at the moment is on higher position in the table (Watford 4th, Stoke 8th). Both teams with ambition to get promotion into Premier League (both teams in last years played there). According to many experts Stoke have the best squad in Championship - they have really big depth in squad, a lot of high quality players and good, experienced coach on the bench. O'Neill made impressive results with Northern Ireland national team. Watford have new coach - unexperienced Xisco, it's first job for him in such big club and it's hard to trust for him after 4 matches. I believes his record at the moment looks good because players had argue with previous coach, so with better atmosphere results came, but I'm not sure he is able to deliver results in long term. Until now, without any shadow of doubt Stoke didn't played worse than Watford. Stoke is more creative - they scored 3 goals more from open play. In overall Stoke scored 30 goals, Watford 28, but Watford scored 6 goals from penalty kicks (Stoke 0), so difference is really visible. Both teams on similar level in defense (Stoke kept clean sheet 12 times, Watford 11). As well I don't see big difference between both teams in the middle zone. I believe home advantage should make a difference today.

For me is extremely hard to see Watford as a favorite on away almost against anyone. They won only 17 of last 87 away league matches.. In current season Watford made 43 points, but only 11 points (16%) were gained on away. Only 2 wins in 11 away matches - both against teams from bottom-eight of the table. When Watford played against teams from top16 on away, they lost 4 times in 5 matches (1 draw). Stoke is much more solid at home than Watford on away - Stoke went unbeaten in 62 of last 96 home league matches.

Stoke in last round played on away against Rotherham - match finished with draw 3:3. Stoke should win that game, but made too many silly errors in defense. That was another game which Stoke should win, but they finished with 1 point. Because of that they are only at 8th place. Only Milwall (11) in whole league have more draws than Stoke (10). I expect reaction today. Stoke manager O'Neill said: ''Each of the goals we lost were really poor. Ten draws is too many and we felt in a number of those games we've given up the opportunity to win. We are on a run at the minute of too many draws but we are trying to get out of it."

In last round Watford won 1:0 at home against Burnley by goal from penalty kick. That wasn't convincing performance at all. Burnley for long periods of the match looked like a better team.

I don't see Watford as a favorite here. Odds on Stoke are definitely too high.

我认为斯托克确实有很好的机会在今天的比赛中取得至少1分。

两队在今天比赛之前没有任何新缺席。斯托克城（Stoke）的好消息-是键的中后卫詹姆斯·切斯特（James Chester）（18场比赛）从禁赛中复出。应该可以提升防守阵型的质量。第一门将本·福斯特由于手指受伤而仍然无法出战。今天Daniel Bachmann（这是他在本级别的第三场比赛）将再次首发。

斯托克在对阵沃特福德的最近6场比赛中仅输掉一次。两支球队之间的本赛季首场比赛以沃特福德3：2主场胜利结束，但这很幸运，因为他们在第92分钟才攻入了决定性的进球。

目前，沃特福德在积分榜中的排名较高（沃特福德第4名，斯托克第8名）。两支球队都渴升级到英超联赛（过去几年两支球队都在英超联赛）。根据许多专家的说法，斯托克队在联赛中拥有最好的阵容-他们的阵容深度很大，很多实力很强的球员经验丰富，坐在板凳上。奥尼尔在北爱尔兰国家队中取得了骄人的成绩。沃特福德的新教练Xisco经验不足，这是他在如此大的俱乐部中的第一份工作，在4场比赛之后很难依然相信他。他目前的记录看起来不错，球员曾与前任教练有过矛盾，因此现在有了更好的气氛结果，但我不确定他能否长期取得结果。到目前为止，毫无疑问，斯托克城的表现并不比沃特福德差。斯托克城更具创造力-他们在运动战中比沃特福德进了3个进球。斯托克总进球数为30球，沃特福德为28球，但沃特福德依靠点球（斯托克城0球）打进6球，因此差异是显而易见的。双方的防守水平相似（斯托克城12场保持零封，沃特福德11次）。中场两支球队之间没有太大的区别。我相信主场优势今天会有所作用。

对我来说，很难将沃特福德在客场很难被高看。在过去的87场联赛中他们只赢了17场。在本赛季，沃特福德（Watford）取得43分，但客场仅获得11分（16％）。在11场比赛中，只有2场胜利-对手都来自积分榜后八位。沃特福德对阵前16名的球队时，他们在5场比赛（1平局）中输了4次。斯托克城在主场的表现要比沃特福德的客场成绩好得多-斯托克在过去96场主场联赛中有62场保持不败。 上轮斯托克客场对阵罗瑟勒姆-比赛以3：3结束。斯托克城本应该赢得这场比赛，但是在防守上犯了太多愚蠢的错误，最终他们得到了1分。因此现在仅排在第八位。整个英冠中只有米尔沃尔（11）比斯托克城（10）拥有更多的平局。我认为他们今天能有所回应。斯托克城的主教练奥尼尔说：“我们的丢球确实非常不应该。十场平局太多了，我们在许多比赛中都觉得自己已经放弃了获胜的机会。虽然现在平局很多，但我们正在努力摆脱困境。”

在上一轮比赛中，沃特福德依靠点球以1：0的进球击败了伯恩利。这根本不能说服性能。伯恩利在比赛的很长一段时间里表现更好。

我认为沃特福德本场无法取胜。预测斯托克城不败。