Two teams that enjoyed winning starts to the Championship season face off at Hillsborough on Saturday as Sheffield Wednesday play host to Watford.
Wednesday beat Cardiff City 2-0 in their opening fixture to move up to minus nine points in the table, while Watford edged out Middlesbrough 1-0.
Match preview
© Reuters
The Owls' victory against Cardiff was a professional away performance, with Garry Monk's men doing well to keep the opposition quiet and taking their own chances when they arrived.
Wednesday now return to Hillsborough, where they have lost their first home league match in only one of their last 12 seasons - against Burnley in 2013-14.
The aim for Monk this season remains slightly unclear, with his side hit with a 12-point deduction before a ball had even been kicked, placing them in relegation trouble.
As their performance showed on the opening weekend, however, the Yorkshire outfit will surely climb out of the dropzone before too long and can then look up the division.
For now, though, it is a classic case of taking it one game at a time for Monk and his players, starting with this visit of a Watford side still adapting to the division.
The Hornets kicked off their first second-tier campaign in five years with a 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough, picking up the points through an early Craig Cathcart header.
© Reuters
It was for from a vintage performance from Watford, but it was a hard-fought win new boss Vladimir Ivic happily accepted after the match.
Watford are now looking to make it back-to-back league victories without conceding since October 2018, and they have a good record in recent trips to this iconic venue.
They have won their last three meetings with Wednesday at Hillsborough in the league, although this is their first such encounter since October 2014.
Both teams were also in action in midweek, with Watford overcoming Oxford United on penalties in the second round of the EFL Cup and Wednesday seeing off Rochdale 2-0.
Something has to give this weekend, though, with one of these sides' 100% starts coming to an end in Yorkshire.
Sheffield Wednesday Championship form: W
Sheffield Wednesday form (all competitions): WWW
Watford Championship form: W
Watford form (all competitions): WW
Team News
© Reuters
Monk has reported no fresh injury concerns on the back of two games in three games, so Wednesday have a full group to choose from for this first home outing of the season.
Striker Jordan Rhodes scored last time out for Wednesday and is looking to net in consecutive league games for them for the first time since November 2017.
Josh Windass, also on target at the Cardiff City Stadium, should get the nod alongside Rhodes in attack, with support offered by Chelsea loanee Izzy Brown.
The picture is a lot different for Monk's opposite number Ivic, who is without a number of players due to injuries and transfer speculation.
Captain Troy Deeney is expected to leave before next month's deadline and will not be picked here, which is also the case for Roberto Pereyra, Ismaila Sarr and Gerard Deulofeu.
As for the injury absentees, Will Hughes and Andre Gray are still on the comeback trail and will play no part at Hillsborough.
Sheffield Wednesday possible starting lineup:
Dawson; Aken, Lees, Iorfa; Harris, Bannan, Luongo, Penney; Brown; Windass, Rhodes
Watford possible starting lineup:
Foster; Cathcart, Kabasele, Wilmot; Ngakia, Chalobah, Cleverley, Femenia; Sema, Quina; Pedro
We say: Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Watford
Wednesday have won three out of three in all competitions so far this season without conceding, while Watford also boast a 100% record from their two matches to date.
The Owls had one of the division's worst home records last season, winning just one of their last 12 league games at Hillsborough, and for that reason we are tipping the visitors to come out on top on Saturday.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a double chance bet on a home win or an away win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Home/Away:dataData Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sheffield Wednesday win with a probability of 41.72%. A win for Watford had a probability of 31.68% and a draw had a probability of 26.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sheffield Wednesday win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.89%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.69%) and 2-0 (7.48%). The likeliest Watford win was 0-1 (9.21%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.64%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 7.9% likelihood.
