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West Bromwich Albion continue their bid to escape the drop as they welcome Southampton to The Hawthorns in the first of a Monday Night Football double-header.
Victory will see West Brom reduce their deficit to eight points whereas Southampton can rise to 12th with a win.
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Branislav Ivanovic is ruled out for West Brom with a hamstring injury suffered in last weekend’s 5-2 away victory at Chelsea.
Dara O’Shea (ankle) is doubtful but could be handed a late fitness test.
Southampton could be without Kyle Walker-Peters who is nursing a minor leg injury.
Oriol Romeu (ankle), Will Smallbone (knee) and Michael Obafemi (unspecified) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- West Brom have won just one of their last six league meetings against Southampton (W1, L5).
- Southampton have claimed 10 points from their last five league visits to The Hawthorns (W3, D1, L1).
- Two of Matheus Pereira’s seven league goals for West Brom this season have come from the penalty spot.
- James Ward-Prowse has scored once in each of Southampton’s last two away league games, with both goals coming from first half penalties.
- This is West Brom’s first home league game this season refereed by Simon Hooper, who is also yet to referee a Southampton away match this campaign.
Prediction
With West Brom’s gap to safety now increased to 11 points entering this match after Newcastle’s win on Sunday, this is definitely a must-win if Sam Allardyce’s Baggies want a shot at survival.
They however will need a repeat of their stunning creatively attacking performance which we saw at Chelsea last weekend, yet they have to still improve defensively in case it was to come down to goal difference.
Southampton meanwhile know that a win here will virtually see them all but mathematically guarantee safety, especially if can build on last week’s clinical comeback performance over Burnley in which they pressed well but defence again looked costly early on.
On that note, I reckon that we should see goals here but if Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Saints can improve defensively and pull together a clean performance, they should have enough to defeat this West Brom given their form in recent visits and the Baggies have it all to lose here.
Prediction: WBA 1-2 Southampton
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