The Baggies are back just after a 2-2 draw over Norwich City, they come for a long trip to Sunderland where they are looking to close the gap on one of our promotion rivals.
The longest away trip in the EFL for us and I didn’t want this to be on a Tuesday night plus it’s the first game I’m not going to this season. However, I don’t like midweek games especially when it’s away but I’m already thinking of Preston on Saturday.
Last time out, Sunderland drew 1-1 to Millwall making this their 4th successive draw and with us we currently drew 7 of our last 8 games and we are 6th in the league and on the same points as we was last season and if we do win our game at Sunderland we would be 3 points behind them and the automatic promotion places.
The Baggies have Darnell Furlong suspended for this fixture and with Bartley and Ajayi out I do think it would be some result if we go onto win here.
Player To Watch – Sunderland
There’s one player who has been key for Sunderland this season and that is their young player Chris Rigg. He has been linked to top clubs in the Premier League and is currently one of the rising talents in the EFL, in this encounter against the Baggies he would show the fans and scouts who are watching him what he has to take.
In this fixture, he would create attacking threats and they have a deadly midfield pairing with Jobe Bellingham and Wilson Isidor in attack. Can our defenders stop Chris Rigg on Tuesday night?
Player To Watch – West Brom
Alex Palmer would be mine, as I think I said Josh Maja and Heggem quite a lot this season, I feel it would be Palmer’s game to be focused against a team like Sunderland.
Sunderland have a lot of young attacking players and it would show if Alex Palmer is at his best on Tuesday evening, he has one of the best clean sheets in the Championship and if he does come away with a clean sheet then I’d say Palmer would be my player to watch in this promotion race fixture.
My Line Up V Sunderland
A change to the formation I’m going for against Sunderland, I be playing a back 3 with Heggem, Holgate and Diakite, in the wing backs I’d play Frabotta and Styles, Alex Mowatt would be on his own in midfield with Karlan Grant and Tom Fellows in attacking wingers and Josh Maja and Devante Cole would start as strikers for the encounter against Sunderland.
Prediction V Sunderland
Predictions against Sunderland, the team who are second in the Championship but they did have a good start to the season last year but fell off after Christmas and ended up finishing 16th place and they also was on the same points as us at the same stage last season so let’s hope it won’t be us falling to that position come end of the season.
However it can happen to Sunderland and they haven’t won in their last 4 Championship games as they have drew all of them. If we are to get a result here it could put pressure on Sunderland as the gap would close to 3 points between us and them.
My thoughts about the game, I think we would start off brightly early on trying to get an early goal but it would come around the 6th minute mark where Josh Maja would score his 11th goal and against his former side Sunderland.
After the first goal, it would be a quiet game for the next 30 minutes until Sunderland would try and create chances towards the end of the first half with the scoreline being 1-0 to West Brom at half time.
Second half, early on Sunderland would create more chances but Alex Palmer would keep us out but around the 70th minute mark I think Sunderland would get a penalty and Patrick Roberts would take it where this be denied by Alex Palmer.
Near the end the Baggies would try and double the scoreline but would create near enough chances and miss narrowly, the score would end 1-0 to West Brom where we would close the gap by 3 points and would be a massive result for us.
Prediction: Sunderland 0-1 West Brom
Goalscorer for West Brom: Josh Maja