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1st Jan 2020 | Premier League

Premier League Draw Double

Nigel Pearson has made a striking difference to Watford as they attempt to climb out of the abyss. But Wolves should prove gritty opponents. Meanwhile Saints are proving that improvement is also possible without changing manager.

There are two New Year’s Day clashes in the Premier League where I can’t see past draws, made more appealing by the bookies making them the long shot of the three possible match outcomes. Back the matches at Southampton and Watford to both end as draws at 11.92/1 with Bet365.


Southampton v Spurs:

Both these sides drew in their most recent fixtures and the margins will surely be fine again here. Tottenham may be the better team on paper but Jose Mourinho looks some way off solving his new team’s defensive headaches; 12 goals conceded in his 8 league matches shows how good they’ve needed to be going forward to take 16pts in that time.

Southampton have improved over the same period taking 14pts from their last 8 to climb out of the drop zone. Admittedly their best days have come on the road where they rank 7th, compared to 19th at St Mary’s Stadium, but I can’t back them to lose after such an impressive festive period in which they have won at Villa and Chelsea, before drawing with Palace.

Watford v Wolves:

This one really is screaming draw at me even if the two teams are operating at opposite ends of the table with Wolves having claimed almost double the number of points (30) of their hosts (16). But there is some Pearson-shaped context to add: Watford have tripled their number of league wins in the past 10 days with emphatic victories coming at Vicarage Road over Man Utd and Villa.

But Wolverhampton are both the joint-second toughest team to beat in the division, and the draw specialists having shared the spoils 9 times out of 20. At their peak condition they might nick this fixture but following arduous clashes with Man City and Liverpool, a point would be highly credible against resurgent scrappers.

Odds correct at time of publishing: 07:24 1st Jan, 2020 but subject to change