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UPDATE: Everton have even more problems now. Apparently Kurt Zouma confronted referee Lee Probert at full time and was shown two consecutive yellows and a red card, which means he’s suspended for the Blues next game against Cardiff City in 17 days.

Fulltime - Silva’s misery complete on his return to Vicarage Road. Watford fans will be cackling all the way home today as they get to have their say on their former manaer and win three points as well while doing it.

90+3’ - Chance again! Tosun the furthest forward and gets his head to the ball, and heads over! He was offside though and it doesn’t matter.

90+2’ - Bernard wins a freekick on the left. Digne with an excellent delivery into the box, and DCL rises highest, but his header is weak and aimless and Foster falls on the ball to kill more seconds.

87’ - Zouma (!!) leads a counter and stays up top, and then shows some pretty nimble footwork in the box to put in a cross that DCL heads agonizingly wide.

83’ - Cholevas picks up a yellow for shoving Walcott and then protesting as clear a foul as you’ll ever see.
The freekick is from a dangerous spot deep on the right.. and Digne tonks one off the bar again! He got plenty of zip on it to beat the wall, but it bounces off the horizontal and over.

80’ - Stupendous effort from Idrissa Gueye to win and retain the ball, winning tackles three times in a row.
Walcott makes a run to the touchline and his cross to the middle is stabbed just wide.
One Everton alumnus makes way for another, with Tom Cleverley replacing Deulofeu as the Hornets look to consolidate.

75’ - Blues have barely seen the ball since they’ve gone down and Silva’s two subs have come on. And on that note, now Sigurdsson exits and Dominic Calvert-Lewin is on. Straight 4-4-2 now?

67’ - Silva makes his second sub - Richarlison off for Bernard.
The Hornets crowd are loving it right now, and they’re crowing at full throat - “Silva, Silva, what’s the score now?” , “He’s better than you” and “You’re getting sacked in the morning”.

63’ - Andre Gomes is the first change, and Theo Walcott is coming on. This is a change of tactics as Sigurdsson and Gomes have occupied the same space all game long, this adds another body to the forward corps.
A couple of setpieces and there we go again, Everton behind. First a poor punch out from Pickford creates a shot from which the Hornets get a corner, this is cleared away but a through pass finds Will Hughes open, his centre goes straight to sub Gray and it’s a tap in. Telling that Sigurdsson was the man apparently marking the scorer. 1-0 Watford.

60’ - Richarlison is trying desperately hard to prove a point to the booing Watford crowd, and it’s not coming off for him. The crowd are winning that battle right now.

54’ - Watford come right back at the Blues. Cholevas drills a low shot with his right foot just wide of the far post which Pickford had covered.
The Hornets then win a couple of quick corners, cleared by Keane both times. Then Pickford completely misses a punch while blanketed by Andre Gray, and luckily Lee Probert gives the foul on the goalie.

50’ - Oh Siggy!! Sigurdsson with an instinctive flick at the ball almost gets it to drop into the far post, but it goes off the bar! The ball was bouncing around in the penalty area and the Icelander almost got it in too.

46’ - And we’re underway again in the second half.

Halftime - It’s not been pleasing to the eye at times, but the Blues have mostly held their own today. Tom Davies has certainly run around a lot, and while the stats are not great, he’s certainly given his teammates a spark.
The defence has done enough so far, which is all we can ask at times from the Blues. Gylfi Sigurdsson and his position in this game is an utter mystery I feel (Blues are in black and yellow in this graphic.. don’t ask me why).

Everton FC

45+3’ - Keane gives away another needless freekick, in a pretty dangerous area too. Watford try to recreate the Manchester City setpiece that gave them a halftime lead midweek, but it’s straight at Pickford.. who appears to fumble it in an attempt to give it to Digne maybe(?).. but the cross back in is too deep and the ref blows for halftime.

45’ - Digne saves the day! A cutback into the box is blocked by Zouma and the ball falls perfectly to Geri, but Digne slides in to block.

40’ - Tosun with some intelligent movement right behind the defensive line, but is called offside after he gets to a good through ball from Andre Gomes.
Tosun again offside after the Blues exert some pressure on the Watford area.

36’ - Kenny with another awful giveaway, clears a pass straight to Gerard Deulofeu who doesn’t shoot, and the cross into the box is headed away for a corner.
Watford again trying a training ground kick but it’s poorly executed.

34’ - Chance!! Watford’s defence trying to get too smart and giveaway the ball on the edge of the box, Tosun generates a lot of power on his quick turn and shot, but it’s well-saved by Foster.

30’ - It’s been back and forth really for the last few minutes with no clear chances for either side. Watford have certainly been playing a physical game and Everton haven’t been shy about going down. The home fans are not loving it.

20’ - Good chance for Zouma! Digne swings in a cross and the defender tries to guide his header to the far post but it’s saved again.

16’ - Richarlison has been receiving a smattering of boos so far, and wins a freekick near the right corner flag, to more boos. Lucas Digne swings it in, over Kurt Zouma and Michael Keane makes only weak contact for Foster to save easily.

15’ - Everton now exerting some pressure. Richarlison runs down the right and swings in a beautiful cross going towards Cenk Tosun but it’s cleared for a corner which comes to nothing.

11’ - Drama, and Everton survive. Etienne Capoue finds himself left wide open after a deflected cross into the box, with the defence standing still arms raised for offside. Referee doesn’t call it and Capoue somehow blasts off Jordan Pickford and over from six yards out.

6’ - Jonjoe Kenny has misjudged a couple of passes already, causing turnovers. Running tirelessly though.

3’ - Everton are captained by Tom Davies today and have looked quite fluid and alive to begin the game. Early freekick won by Davies is sent into the box but straight at Ben Foster.

Lineups - Silva keeps the midfield trio from midweek, but rotates the front three. This does look like a 4-3-3 though, and Sigurdsson going out wide to the right side?

Watford are going with a 4-4-2, with former Blue Gerard Deulofeu pairing up with captain Troy Deeney up top.

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Marco Silva returns to Vicarage Road for the first time with Everton, and though Watford FC would like to say they are over him, it appears there’s still some raw wounds there.

There is more than that to play for though. The hosts today are in 8th place while the Blues are at ninth, just a point behind. With Wolves already four points clear in seventh, neither team can afford to drop any points if they want to have any hopes of catching the flying newly-promoted side. The Blues were dispatched 2-0 by Manchester City midweek and have played a game more than the Hornets.

Match Details

Date and start time: Saturday, February 9th at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m ET / 3:00 p.m. BST

Stadium: Vicarage Road, Watford, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 21,577

Weather: 50°F/10°C, cloudy, 1% chance of precipitation, 37 kmph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: N/A - United States; N/A - United Kingdom; beIN Sports 4, SuperSport 9 Africa

Radio: evertontv, TalkSport Radio UK

Live stream: NBC Sports Gold, Flow Sports

Gamethread: Comments section below starting one hour before game time

Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Starting XI: Pickford; Kenny, Zouma, Keane, Digne; Davies, Gomes, Gueye; Sigurdsson, Tosun, Richarlison.

Subs: Stekelenburg, Coleman, McCarthy, Walcott, Lookman, Bernard, Calvert-Lewin

Watford FC

Starting XI: Foster, Holebas, Mariappa, Cathcart, Janmatt, Sema, Capoue, Doucouré, Hughes, Deeney, Deulofeu

Subs: Gomes, Kabasele, Masina, Chalobah, Cleverley, Penaranda, Gray

Last Meeting

Watford quite outclassed Everton at Goodison Park in December, and jumped into a second half lead with two quick goals, but allowed the Blues to come back late with a Lucas Digne stunner from a freekick.

The Blues have not done well at Vicarage Road for some time now, with the last win at Watford coming back in 2006-07 - to be fair though, the Hornets were out of the Premier League for nine seasons after that.