Watford v Tottenham: Defoe to continue fine scoring record
Published:Jermain Defoe was a whisker away from handing Tottenham victory at Manchester City in the latest round of Premier League fixtures, but he can make a small amount of amends against Watford in the FA Cup.
Defoe was just unable to get enough of a contact on Gareth Bale’s centre in the final minute and then had to watch as Mario Balotelli scored from the penalty spot at the other end to hand Manchester City victory.
Harry Redknapp will be tempted to rotate his squad for the cup clash, meaning that it is hard to predict whether Defoe or Roman Pavlyuchenko will get the nod in attack.
But Defoe has scored eight goals in ten FA Cup appearances across the last three seasons and so may at least be worth backing at 5/6 to score at any point in the 90 minutes.
Pavlyuchenko is available at 1/1 in the same market.
Even if Defoe is named among the substitutes, there is a strong chance that he will score as the fixture promises goals.
Over four goals have been averaged in Watford’s last ten FA Cup games, while Tottenham tend not to have trouble scoring in the Premier League against arguably better opposition.
FA Cup odds of 4/6 for over 2.5 goals looks well worth taking, while 2/1 is decent value that a minimum of four goals are scored.
In terms of picking a winner, Spurs have triumphed in their last four FA Cup meetings with Watford and only lost one of their last 27 ties with lower league opposition in the competition.
Tottenham’s odds are 4/9 to beat Watford, with the hosts available at 6/1 and the draw that would sent the tie into a replay at White Hart Lane is priced at 10/3.
