West Bromwich Albion FC
Newcastle United
Newcastle United
West Brom can close the gap on woeful Newcastle this weekend with both battling for survival
West Brom 1-1 Newcastle
Being two of the dullest teams to watch in the Premier League, it’s no surprise that West Brom and Newcastle are battling relegation, with the home team strong favourites to go down in a couple of months’ time.
West Brom have been marginally better since the appointment of Sam Allardyce at the back end of 2020, but nowhere near the standard required to stay up in this league.
In their midweek fixture, they were beaten 1-0 by Everton, but had shown better form previous to that with five points from their last three matches.
Newcastle have been on the slide since 19th December when they sat 12th in the league. With nine defeats from their next 14 games, the Magpies have slowly but surely sunk towards the bottom of the table and are now in serious danger of going down.
With neither side known for their positive play right now, it’s hard imagining that this will be a classic.
Form Guide (all comps): LDDWL
Reasons to be cheerful:
Conceded just one goal in last five hours of football
Good record against fellow bottom six clubs
Reasons to be fearful:
Grady Diangana and Kieran Gibbs likely to remain out
Conceded the most home goals in a season since 1964
West Brom’s form has certainly improved of late. Before their defeat to Everton in midweek, they had gone three games without defeat and have conceded just one goal in their last five hours of play.
Unfortunately, it’s what’s come across the rest of the season which has led the club to be on the verge of relegation. They’ve let in an extraordinary amount of goals, the most at home of any club at this stage of a campaign in almost 60 years.
Here, they’ll be without one of their talented youngsters, Grady Diangana, as well as they experienced Kieran Gibbs at full back.
If West Brom are to beat the odds and survive the drop, this is one of the games that they simply must win.
Star Man – Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Has great ability, and deserves more quality from his teammates right now. He can inspire his side to victory here.
Form Guide (all comps): LWLLD
Reasons to be cheerful:
Beat West Brom in their first meeting of the season
Lost just five of their 23 meetings
Reasons to be fearful:
Missing their three top attackers
Claimed just nine points from the last 45 available
It’s been a poor couple of weeks for Newcastle, both on and off the pitch, with a string of dreadful results drawing them closer to the danger zone, and reports of a training ground bust-up between the manager and his players making the headlines.
They’ve suffered eight defeats so far in 2021, level with Southampton, with just two victories coming since the turn of the year.
More bad news sees Saint-Maximin and Almiron join top scorer Callum Wilson on the treatment table, meaning that the Magpies’’ best three attacking players are unavailable.
Against West Brom, they are unlikely to throw caution to the wind and go for the win, though should they lose here, and Fulham win, then Newcastle will find themselves in the bottom three.
Star Man – Joelinton
Has only three goals this season, but in the absence of his injured teammates, must step up here
A match of few chances
Both teams to miss injured players
A draw the most likely result
A draw is the better result for Newcastle rather than West Brom here, with the home side surely sensing an opportunity for victory.
Neither side will completely throw off the shackles, knowing that defeat could be disastrous to their chances of survival.
With key strikers missing on both sides, a draw is likely here.
West Brom 1-1 Newcastle
