Everton will travel to Vicarage Road this evening to attempt to stop themselves from suffering the same fate as their opponents as their battle against relegation rolls on, and Frank Lampard has been given a major injury boost ahead of the clash.
What's the latest?
Roy Hodgson took to his pre-match press conference ahead of the Everton game to confirm that there will likely be a number of changes to his team on Wednesday night, claiming that the squad were in the middle of an injury crisis.
Hodgson told the press (via Watford Official):
“I was hoping to play a similar team, but we’ve lost so many players that we find ourselves in the middle of an injury crisis.
The club website further confirmed that doubts are on Tom Cleverley, Kiko Femenía, Joshua King, Ismaïla Sarr, Emmanuel Dennis and Shaq Forde.
Players who are definitely unavailable are Juraj Kucka (knee), Cucho Hernández (hamstring), and Nicolas Nkoulou (minor groin problem).
Lampard will be thrilled
The Everton manager will surely be delighted that Watford will potentially play a weaker than usual team this evening, especially since he has injury problems of his own to key players.
Yerry Mina, Ben Godfrey and Donny van de Beek have all been ruled out of the fixture, with the two defenders, in particular, a huge loss for Lampard as they have both been positively influential in the backline over the season.
Michael Keane and Mason Holgate will be available to play in the centre-back partnership and with a weakened Watford side should be able to protect their line effectively to secure Everton more points in their endeavour to survive relegation this season.
The Toffees have won three and drawn one of their last five games, and are currently 16th in the Premier League table ahead of Leeds United and Burnley, with one game in hand on their relegation rivals and the potential of picking up a maximum of 12 points over the next four games.
Lampard will hope that his team can continue the momentum in their final push for survival in the top flight by taking three more points this evening which would steer them into further safety and take the pressure off the Evertonians ahead of the end of the season.
Considering Watford's ropey looking squad, they have every chance of sealing yet another vital win.