Norwich v Watford: Idah value in clash of strugglers

• Smith pays price for Canaries' poor form

• Damaging defeats for Watford and Bilic

• Back Idah to get on the scoresheet... twice

Norwich v Watford
Monday 2January 3pm
Live on Sky Sports Football

Smith out as Canaries crumble

Allan Russell will take charge of Norwich for the second game of his interim spell in charge at Carrow Road following Dean Smith's sacking. Fans of the Norfolk club not only believe this to have been the right decision, but are unanimous in questioning why it wasn't made sooner.

Currently sitting outside the play-off places in 7th position and, with one win in their last five games, the general lack of clear plan or identity on the pitch has been a far cry from the dominant Norwich sides we have seen in recent times in the Championship under Daniel Farke.

He was blessed in having the best player in the league in Emiliano Buendia, and the feeling is that the Canaries currently lack that stardust, both on the pitch and in the dugout.

Hornets have lost their sting in Pedro

Four clean sheets in a row had suggested that Slaven Bilic was getting his feet firmly under the table, or at least as far as they can go at Watford, but two abhorrent displays in the 2-0 and 4-0 defeats against fellow play-off hopefuls Millwall and Swansea could see the Croatian manager come under some pressure if the malaise continues.

Watford will be missing plenty of key players for this one, with Hassane Kamara suspended and Imran Louza one of the many injured. None are more influecial, possibly in the whole division, than Joao Pedro who faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines. His eight goals and two assists only tell half the story of his influence, and Watford will be a far weaker force without the league's most talented player.

Norwich New Year cheer

The two sides generally enjoy a very different fate at this time of the season, with Norwich unbeaten in their opening league game in each of their last six calendar years when in the second tier, winning five.

Watford, however, have lost their opening league match in nine of the last 11 calendar years, failing to keep a clean sheet in all 11 games in this run. They do have bragging rights in this fixture though, winning six of their last seven matches against Norwich.

Idah know who to back

This is a pretty tough one to call. Norwich are rightful favourites, but I'm not interested in getting involved at 10/11 about a side in woeful form. Watford's last two performances and their list of absentees makes them pretty unbackable at the price with Millwall and Swansea able to cut through them with alarming ease.

As such, I'm going to take a chance on Adam Idah, who scored the opening goal in the 1-1 draw with Reading earlier in the week and will surely get the nod ahead again here alongside Teemu Pukki and Josh Sargeant. He had a whopping seven shots in that game with the Reading defenders seemingly more concerned with stopping his strike partners.

With the recent precedent for Watford shipping goals, I'm going to have a speculative bet on Idah to score two or more goals at 8/1 in the hope he is the one to profit from the away side's crisis of confidence at the back.