West Bromwich Hoping to Break Out of Bad Form

mooinblack / Shutterstock.com

West Bromwich Albion made a good start to the 2017/18 Premier League season.  Having won promotion to the Premier League in 2009/10, only once have they been threatened with relegation and that was in 2013/14, when they finished in 17th place.

Since then they have consistently remained around mid-table or just below and last season finished a very credible 10th place in the league.

While West Bromwich Albion are never going to scale the heights of the top four or Europa League qualification, anything 10th or above would be considered a good season and they seemed on course to achieve that in the 2017/18 campaign.

The Baggies make the short trip to play Leicester City on Monday and started the season with two wins in the Premier League, both 1-0 over Bournemouth and Burnley, the latter of which was a good result away from home.

However, having been held at home by Stoke City in their next Premier League game on the 27th August, West Bromwich Albion have failed to win a match.

Trends show they have gone five matches without a win, four in the Premier League and one in the League Cup.  There have been defeats in the Premier League at Brighton and Hove Albion and Arsenal, plus a home defeat to Manchester City in the League Cup.

The only points West Bromwich Albion have gained in September and October have come in home draws with West Ham and Watford.

Conceding goals has been a problem for West Bromwich Albion and trends show they have allowed 2 or more goals in six of their last eight away games in all competitions.

Their hosts for this match, Leicester City, start the match in the relegation zone, having picked up 5 points from their seven games played. They are 4 points behind West Bromwich Albion and only Bournemouth and Crystal Palace have a worse record in the Premier League this season.

Trends show Leicester have won just one of their seven Premier League matches this season, which was a 2-0 victory over Brighton at home back on the 19th August.  Therefore, this is a match between two teams who have forgotten what it is like to win in the Premier League.

While Leicester have scored at least once in each of their last fourteen home games in all competitions, conceding goals has been a problem and the Foxes have managed one clean sheet in their previous five home league games.

Team news and Leicester City are without the injured Matty James and Robert Huth.  Adrien Silva is unavailable until January but Ben Chilwell should be fit to start at full-back with Jamie Vardy leading the line in attack.

West Bromwich Albion have doubts over Hal Robson-Kanu and James Morrison following the international fixtures.  Nacer Chadli is also struggling to make it and Tony Pulis may opt to stick with the same team which picked up a point against Watford last time out.

A look at Leicester’s fixtures this season shows they have hosted Chelsea and Liverpool plus travelled to Arsenal and Manchester United.  Therefore, it would be unfair to call their start to the season poor just yet and they have shown enough to suggest they can get their second win of the season in this game.

West Bromwich Albion do not travel well in the Premier League and Leicester could take advantage by picking up a win by a narrow win by a 1 goal margin.