The Championship weekend begins in style on Friday night as Watford welcome Bristol City to Vicarage Road (20:00 GMT).
Only leaders Coventry have more points per game at home than Javi Gracia’s Hornets, who have taken 16 points from their opening seven matches at the Vic, losing only once.
They have won the past four, culminating in a 3-0 drubbing of high-flying Middlesbrough last Saturday, while Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Ipswich took them into the top-half.
The Robins are in the midst of an injury crisis but have one of the division’s best away records, taking 11 points from their opening five games on the road before the shock 5-1 thrashing at Stoke last Saturday.
Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat to Blackburn at Ashton Gate left Gerhard Struber’s side in seventh, three points and five places above Watford.
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Watford have won three of their past four home league meetings with Bristol City without conceding (L1), and have lost just once in the Robins’ last six (W3 D2).
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Bristol City won their most recent game against Watford in April, and could win back-to-back league matches against them for the first time since a run of three between 1990 and 1991.
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Watford have won each of their past four home league games, their longest run since a five-game spell ending in November 2024 – the Hornets haven’t won five in a row while also scoring more than once in each victory on home turf since 1985 in the top-flight (7).
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Bristol City have lost back-to-back league games for the first time under Gerhard Struber, last losing more in a row in February/March 2024, a four-game streak under Liam Manning.
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Watford’s Imran Louza has scored in each of his past four Championship appearances, with Troy Deeney in 2015 the last Hornet to go on a longer scoring streak in the league (6 in a row).
