Crystal Palace v Watford: The draw and Dann are the sensible bets

Michael Lintorn
12 February 2016

Scott Dann has helped compensate for the poor return of the Crystal Palace strikers

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There are attractive prices on the spoils being shared and Scott Dann scoring again at Selhurst Park...

"Dann is the sole Eagles squad member to have netted during their last eight league games and, even more extraordinarily, there are just 23 players in the entire division to have outscored him in 2015/16."

Back Scott Dann to score @ 9.08/1

Crystal Palace 2.35/4 v Watford 3.7511/4; The Draw 3.39/4
Saturday, 15:00

Crystal Palace

It is easy to understand what Alan Pardew alluded to in his pre-match press conference when he said: "We're a bit jealous of Leicester, all the clubs of a similar vein are."

For a month or two, it looked like Crystal Palace might compete for those Champions League places with the Foxes, much as his 2011/12 Newcastle squad did. The Eagles won five of their opening eight fixtures, and started 2016 in fifth place. Six weeks later, they are 12th, 15 points shy of fourth and seven adrift of sixth, having collected a solitary point from their last six Premier League games.

Their attacking options are enhanced for the visit of Watford by the return of Dwight Gayle and Connor Wickham to rival Emmanuel Adebayor, yet there are still several costly injuries, with James McArthur, Jason Puncheon, Joe Ledley, Bakary Sako and Yannick Bolasie all unlikely to be available.

Watford

The distance between Watford and the relegation zone is ten points, with the 33 that they have on the board at the 25-game stage already beating their prior Premier League best by five, so it is arguably the best time to be a Hornets fan since the Graham Taylor glory days of the mid-1980s.

Even recently when they have won just once in eight top-flight outings since Christmas, there is no real panic of being plunged into the scene at the bottom, partly because of the gap they have built up, but also because performance levels have remained high. They have suffered a single defeat by more than one goal in their last 18 encounters in all competitions.

The injury prognosis is promising, with Troy Deeney expected to be ready to start after a fitness issue meant making his first ever Premier League appearance as a substitute at Tottenham last week and Miguel Britos still in with a chance of being cleared to participate.

Match Odds

The draw has to be considered the most appealing match outcome bet at 3.39/4 simply for the fact that these teams have played an accumulative 16 times in the Premier League since Christmas and achieved only one win between them (Watford at home to Newcastle).

The Hornets haven't triumphed on their league travels in over two months and have only prevailed once in nine attempts away to sides beyond the bottom four, drawing three of four against those presently positioned between eighth and 15th like themselves and Palace.

Pardew's men have been victorious in one of their six clashes with clubs above them in the table at Selhurst Park this term, and the Vicarage Road collision between the pair was a second-half Yohan Cabaye penalty short of being a stalemate.

To Score

By firing in both of Crystal Palace's February fixtures to date, Scott Dann has pulled level with Cabaye as their top Premier League goal-getter on five and, unlike the Frenchman, he doesn't have three penalties boosting his figures.

Dann is the sole Eagles squad member to have netted during their last eight league games and, even more extraordinarily, there are just 23 players in the entire division to have outscored him in 2015/16, so he has to be rated the value bet to notch at any time at 9.08/1.

Recommended Bets:

Back the draw @ 3.39/4
Back Scott Dann to score @ 9.08/1

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