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Liverpool-Watford Preview

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Watford has won three straight Premier League matches for the first time in club history.

Now comes the hard part.

Looking to continue that success, the Hornets begin a daunting four-match stretch Sunday at home against Liverpool.

After winning twice in nine games to open their Premier League return following an eight-season absence, Watford (7-4-5) have won five of seven, have as many wins as fellow promoted sides Bournemouth and Norwich City combined and already have more victories than they did in their last one-season stint at the top flight in 2006-07.

Watford outscored Aston Villa, Norwich City and Sunderland 6-2 in the last three to begin this weekend's play a surprising seventh in the table.

Though each of the last three opponents enter this weekend's action in the relegation zone, the momentum the Hornets have built has done wonders for their confidence.

"We want to keep winning," midfielder Adlene Guedioura told the club's official website. "This is the most important thing because we have nine points from these games and hopefully we can have more."

That likely won't be an easy task.

After this contest with Liverpool, who are one point behind them, Watford visits a Chelsea side rid of Jose Mourinho, then host Spurs and Manchester City. Though only one of the Hornets' victories has come against a club that began the week in the top half of the league table, the focus is to deal with the immediate challenge Liverpool (6-6-4) presents.

"Of course it will be against a tough team but we have shown in our games that we have a good side, a good manager, and good players to compete against these teams," Guedioura said. "We are going to respect the plan, and we will see what happens on Sunday, but we hope we get the three points."

While Watford are trying to record a third consecutive league clean sheet for the second time in history, they also hope Odion Ighalo can score in a fourth straight top-division match. His 10th goal of the season in the fourth minute was the difference in last Saturday's 1-0 victory at the Stadium of Light.

"I'm happy for Ighalo, he's a good striker, and he helps the team," said teammate Allan Nyom, who assisted on that goal.

Liverpool yielded more than one goal once in their previous seven league matches before giving up a pair while losing at Newcastle United and drawing West Bromwich Albion in the last two weeks.

The Reds, however, earned a bit of a moral triumph when Divock Origi recorded the equaliser deep in stoppage time for a 2-2 finish against the Baggies last Sunday.

"You can never predict a game like this," Origi told Liverpool's official website. "So we just gave everything and we're happy that we could equalise at the end. Football is never easy. We have a point, it's good, but we can learn from this also."

Liverpool had gone undefeated in four straight road matches before falling 2-0 at Newcastle on Dec. 6, but feel confident after showing their will last weekend.

"We deserved that point and sometimes one point is worth more than three in a bad game," manager Jurgen Klopp said. "We didn't play badly - we had faults, but we didn't play badly - we always tried and that's very important."

The Reds hope to get a further spark from Jordan Henderson, who recorded a goal and an assist last weekend in just his fourth Premier League match of the season.

Though these sides haven't squared off since January 2007, Liverpool have won the last three meetings since losing the first in August 1999.