Watford v Tottenham Hotspur: Premier League – live! | Football

Half-time entertainment. Liverpool v Manchester United isn’t the only super showdown tomorrow. Here’s Suzanne Wrack on Chelsea’s must-win trip to Arsenal in the WSL.

It’ll be better in the second half. It has to be.

45 min +1: In the first of two added minutes, there’s a bit of space for Sarr down the right. The ball drops towards Chalobah. Aurier flicks a header clear just in time.

44 min: So having said that, the game goes totally flat. Half-time, please!

42 min: Chalobah, to the right of the D, dinks a diagonal ball into the box. Deeney guides a header towards the top left, but Gazzaniga is all over it. The game is finally opening up. A shame the half-time whistle is coming soon.

40 min: Spurs nearly score a spectacular goal. Vertonghen, in the centre circle, creams a glorious long pass towards Son, cutting in from the left. Son meets the dropping ball with a screaming volley, sending the ball over the crossbar from the edge of the box. That would have instantly become Tottenham’s second greatest goal at Vicarage Road.

38 min: Spurs break quickly upfield. Alli slips a pass down the inside-right channel for Moura, who strides into the box and tries to slip a shot under Foster. But the keeper makes himself big, and blocks brilliantly, the ball pinging away from danger. The clearest chance of the game so far.

37 min: A throw for Watford on the right. Mariappa flings it long. Deeney flicks it on. Lo Celso hacks the dropping ball clear.

35 min: This is a booking, though. Capoue slides in cynically on Lo Celso, who was threatening to break. He’d probably not have made that tackle had he been censured for the challenge on Tanganga earlier, but here we are.

34 min: Aurier clips Deulofeu as the Watford man scampers down the left. The free kick is a waste of everyone’s time. Aurier wants to watch himself, that’s another slightly rash tackle. But again he escapes a booking.

32 min: A first spell of serious pressure from Watford. Capoue crosses from the right. Deeney nearly flicks home. Deulofeu sees a shot from a tight angle on the left deflected into the side netting. Capoue flings in another cross, and Gazzaniga is forced to claw out from under the bar. That’s got the crowd going, on matters that have nothing to do with video refereeing this time.

30 min: We’re off again at last. Son and Alli combine down the inside left, the former sending a shot towards the bottom left that’s easily claimed by Foster.

29 min: We’ll play on? Scrub that. Referee Michael Oliver has to stop play because the batteries on his walkie-talkie and earpiece combo have run out, and he’s forced to get a new set. While we wait, the crowd burst into a chorus of the popular English folk standard Fuck VAR. Modern football in a nutshell, right there.

27 min: Capoue sticks out a boot to contest a 50-50 with Tanganga. He wins the ball, but also catches the Spurs defender on his knee with the follow-through. Spurs aren’t happy, but VAR isn’t interested. We’ll play on.

26 min: Son and Alli nearly open Watford up down the left with a cute one-two, but Mariappa is wise to their game and intercepts just in time.

24 min: Another punt down the Watford right. Sarr brings it down, with Alderweireld and Vertonghen both looking a little concerned on the edge of their box. Sarr threatens to spin away again, but he’s flagged for bringing the ball down with his arm. Spurs don’t look particularly happy under the long ball.

22 min: Aurier sweeps into the box from the right, latching onto a Lo Celso pass, and harmlessly prods wide of goal. A decent chance made to look more difficult than it was. Aurier is getting a bit of joy down this flank.

20 min: A long ball down the Watford right. Tanganga misjudges a header, allowing Sarr to spin off. Tanganga drags him down, and that’s an obvious booking and a free kick, just to the right of the box. Danger for Spurs here. Watford load the box. But with options in the middle, Chalobah tries to whip a cute one into the top right, and blooters it wildly into the stand. The dugout fills with steam, freshly pumped from the ears of Nigel Pearson, who also uses words such as eff and cee with much passion. That’ll be mentioned in the half-time team-talk, you can be sure of it.

18 min: Doucoure robs Winks on the left and romps down the wing. He pulls back for Sarr, who is in acres on the penalty spot. But the young striker doesn’t want to hit the ball with his left peg, so takes a touch to shift it onto his other foot and hoicks it over the bar, having made a good chance a damn sight more difficult. Still, that’s better from Watford, who have finally shown something in attack.

16 min: Watford have barely ventured into Tottenham’s final third. It’s the away fans making the most noise at the moment.

15 min: A lovely sweeping Spurs move, as Lo Celso, Moura and Son exchange crisp passes at high speed down the middle. It’s not quite enough to open Watford up, but very pleasing on the eye nonetheless.

13 min: Aurier works space to cross down the right. But instead of crossing he starts lolloping around, turns tail, then loses control of the ball and launches into a wild tackle on Cathcart. Free kick, and he’s slightly fortunate to escape a booking, because he introduced a stud or two into that lunge. He’s never boring, you have to give him that.

11 min: Son crosses long from the left. Aurier, from the other flank, sends it back into the box. Cathcart does extremely well to eyebrow away from danger with Moura lurking. Then Tanganga is afforded space for a shot, which he whistles towards the bottom left. Foster gathers. Watford need to wake up, because they’re asking for trouble with these passive tactics.

9 min: Watford seem happy to sit back at the moment, seeing what Spurs have got. They’re holding their shape well enough, but the away side are on top at the minute.

7 min: Lo Celso feeds Aurier down the right, and the wing-back wins the first corner of the game. Lamela takes, and Foster punches miles clear with purpose. But Spurs come straight back at Watford, Lamela taking a speculative look from 25 yards. He flies right to left before dragging a low shot wide right of the target. Spurs look lively.

5 min: Watford haven’t seen much of the ball yet, though they’re flying into a few tackles in a very businesslike manner. Nigel Pearson will be happy enough with that.

3 min: Son whips a shot towards the bottom left from 20 yards. Foster gathers. On the touchline, some breaking news: Jose has a face on. He’s not happy, wondering why VAR didn’t take a proper look at the Cathcart handball and award his men a penalty.

2 min: Spurs enjoy some early possession, and stroke it around nicely. Son threatens to break clear down the left, not once but twice. The ball breaks into the Watford box and bounces off Cathcart’s arm, Moura flicking on. But the players were too close together, so no penalty. Deulofeu races off up the other end as Spurs appeal, and lashes a long-distance effort wide right. Let’s hope the game continues in this manner.

And we’re off! Watford get the ball rolling, then launch it long. Then lose it, and concede a free kick in the centre circle. A fun-packed first 12 seconds.

Here come the teams! The theme from Z Cars blasts from the speakers. Tributes are being paid to legendary Watford manager Graham Taylor, one of the nicest men in the entire history of football having passed away three years ago. The home heroes in yellow and black, Spurs sporting first-choice lilywhite. Nice to see the visitors haven’t defaulted needlessly into their keeping-the-marketing-manager-happy away colours, like so many clubs do these days. Off in a minute!

If Nigel Pearson gave a pre-match interview, your hapless MBM correspondent must have missed it. I’ve failed you, dear reader. O can you ever forgive me? If it makes up for it at all, I can report that he looked very chipper as he watched his charges warming up, laughing heartily with his players in a manner that’d make Jurgen Klopp look like Alex Ferguson in hairdryer mode. A happy ship at the moment, Watford. On the other hand, here’s Mike T: “Seems to me Spurs fans are divided. Some are gleeful at watching football in a spaceship shopping mall applauding Mr Levy’s zero net spend. And the rest, livid that we don’t win anything. Either way can anyone say they are excited at this starting 11 compared to a few years ago?”

Jose Mourinho, slightly flat, not exactly exuding sunshine this morning, speaks to BT Sport. “If I focus on the Leicester, Liverpool and Middlesbrough matches, I have to be happy with what the boys did. So let’s hope that we can follow that direction, because we were intense, we played well, we were organised. Defensively we didn’t have big problems, we created a lot of chances, we played very nice quality football. We probably didn’t score enough goals for what we did, but let’s see if we can follow. We don’t have the striking power, the number-nine target we used to play with, so we have to try to play in a different way.”

Watford are in if-it-ain’t-broke mode. No changes to the side that trounced Bournemouth 3-0 at their own gaff.

Four changes for Spurs, though, from the XI named against Boro midweek. Eric Dier, Ryan Sessegnon, Davison Sanchez and Inter’s Christian Eriksen drop to the bench; Serge Aurier, Toby Alderweireld, Dele Alli and Son Heung-min step up.

Watford: Foster, Mariappa, Dawson, Cathcart, Masina, Chalobah, Capoue, Sarr, Doucoure, Deulofeu, Deeney.
Subs: Pussetto, Gomes, Gray, Quina, Holebas, Kabasele, Pereyra.

Tottenham Hotspur: Gazzaniga, Aurier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Tanganga, Winks, Alli, Lamela, Lo Celso, Son, Lucas Moura.
Subs: Sanchez, Vorm, Dier, Sessegnon, Eriksen, Skipp, Fernandes.

Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland).

Watford have only beaten Tottenham Hotspur twice in the last 32 years. And one of those victories was a futile one-goal win after a 6-3 first-leg larruping in the League Cup. Oh Watford!

But all is not lost. The other win came in this fixture last season, Troy Deeney and Craig Cathcart scoring the goals in a 2-1 win. And there’s more good news for the Hornets at this, the more recent end of our historical sample.

Watford also outplayed Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in October. They felt a little hard done by to come away with only a 1-1 draw, having created plenty of chances only to be pegged back late in the day by Dele Alli. Additionally, they’re in by far the better form right now. Spurs have only won one of their last five Premier League games, losing three; Watford by contrast are on a success bender under new boss Nigel Pearson, having picked up 13 points from the last 15 on offer.

Spurs did have a confidence-boosting win in the cup over Middlesbrough during the week. And on another day they could have turned their home loss against leaders Liverpool into a draw or even a precious victory. So you can make a case for both sides going into this match with hope … and another argument for them kicking off in trepidation. But this is why we play the actual matches rather than just yakking on about them. Can Watford continue their steady climb out of bother? Or will Spurs reignite their top-four hopes with a much-needed win? We’ll find out as we eat our lunch. It’s on!

Kick off: 12.30pm GMT.