Watford v Middlesbrough: Boro backed as attractive underdogs

Watford slip to first defeat

Watford suffered their first Championship defeat of the season on Saturday as the Hornets went down 3-2 at home to QPR. Rob Edwards' outfit twice came from behind to level proceedings through Ken Sema and Joao Pedro but were ultimately undone with the visitors causing plenty of problems on the counter-attack and from set-pieces.

Post-match Edwards admitted, that while he was disappointed to lose his first league game of the season, the manner of the goals Watford conceded hurt just as much.

He said, "Obviously the result is the be all and end all of everything, and that hurt, but the manner of the goals in key moments of the game hurt too. We could have done better on all of them."

Watford did think they had an equaliser when Edo Kayembe crashed home a piledriver from just outside the box - an effort that was disallowed for offside.

The Hornets had been given a big boost before kick-off with both Ismaila Sarr and Pedro fit to start as Edwards made three changes from the last league outing. Mario Gaspar also came into the starting XI, with the Hornets boss moving to a 4-2-3-1 formation with new loan signing Kortney Hause on the bench.

Middlesbrough bag overdue success

Middlesbrough ended their five-match winless start to the Championship season as goals from Riley McGree and Matt Crooks earned a 2-1 win over 10-man Swansea at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday. Joel Piroe replied with a penalty late in the second half but the Swans were left with too much to do to get back into the game after Ben Cabango was sent off.

Overall the encounter lacked clear-cut goalmouth action, although the Teessiders managed the match professionally. Boro looked to stay structured at the back and then noticeably looked to break at speed every time they turned over possession. The hosts appeared lively and clinical going forward, even if high-quality chances were few and far between.

Middlesbrough manager Chris Wilder was relieved to finally get the Reds campaign up-and-running and was pleased with his team's efforts, saying: "I think we completely deserved that win today and tactically we were at it, we sat in and kept our shape really well. We countered well, were good in both boxes and the bit in the middle. I'm very pleased."

New signing Matt Clarke made debut in defence, whilst Liam Roberts made his league debut between the sticks with Zack Steffen out injured. Elsewhere, new forward Rodrigo Muniz had to make do with an appearance off the bench after joining from Fulham last week.

Boro appeal as underdogs

Watford have suffered a solitary reverse in 11 league meetings with Middlesbrough since 2011 (W6-D5-L1). The Hornets are unbeaten in the most recent nine head-to-heads and boast a W6-D2-L1 return when welcoming Boro to Vicarage Road this century, keeping clean sheets in each of their last four fixtures here against the Teessiders.

Watford 2.427/5 have picked up nine points from their opening six outings (W2-D3-L1) but the Hornets haven't overly impressed. Rob Edwards' side are generating the third-lowest non-penalty Expected Goals output (npxG) and have fired in more shots on-target than their opponents just once (averaging only 2.83 per-game). The hosts look like a work in progress.

Middlesbrough 3.259/4 are unfortunate to only have six points on the board (W1-D3-L2). Boro rank second for Expected Points (xP) having won the npxG battle in all six showdowns, as well as having more shots from inside the penalty area in five of those fixtures. Chris Wilder's visitors are posting the league's second-highest npxG figure thus far.

Take the Teessiders in a Bet Builder

Watford's 3-2 reverse to QPR was the first time the Hornets have seen Over 2.5 Goals 2.1511/10 bank this term. Despite the high scoreline, it was another low Expected Goals (xG) total at Vicarage Road (1.94); the figure is almost bang in-line with the xG average across all six of Watford's matches this term - just 1.79 xG per-game, suggesting chances are at a premium.

Middlesbrough's matches have been much more open and enterprising with Boro the chief protagonists in that time. However, there's little appeal in playing the goal markets considering the contrasting underlying numbers. Instead, Middlesbrough Double Chance and Over 0.5 Goals is well worth a look on the Bet Builder at 1.784/5 quotes.

The Teessiders will be buoyed by their first Championship success of the season and have put together numerous high-quality performances already.

Wilder's strengthened his squad in the past 10 days and Boro may be able to take advantage of a Watford squad that will be subject to plenty of transfer speculation in the lead-up to Tuesday's tussle.