West Brom head to the Britannia on the back of a 4-2 victory over West Ham.
West Brom head to the Britannia Stadium this weekend on the back of a thrilling 4-2 victory over West Ham. Here are the talking points heading into this Saturday’s game against Stoke City.
Hughes Under Pressure
This time last week, Tony Pulis was fielding questions about his West Brom future, but a 4-1 defeat at Crystal Palace has now placed Mark Hughes’ job under scrutiny. Stoke sit bottom of the league with only one point from their first five fixtures.
Manchester City and Tottenham both came away from the Britannia with three points this season, so the pressure will be on Hughes’ side to deliver their first victory of the season in front of their home crowd on Saturday.
It won’t surprise anyone that Pulis will set up his side to exploit that pressure by keeping the game tight for as long as possible. If Pulis’ plan is effective then Albion could turn the Britannia crowd against Hughes.
Galloway or Nyom?
Brendan Galloway has had a decent start to his Albion career but found it difficult when West Ham turned on the pressure in the second-half last weekend. The on-loan Everton man was subbed off for Allan Nyom on 68 minutes and the change helped to quell the Hammers dominance.
Nyom’s solid performance might tempt Pulis to tinker with his starting XI at the Britannia. With Chris Brunt stepping up his quest for match fitness, Albion finally have some strength of depth in the left-back position.
Berahino and Stoke
Stoke make no secret of their interest in Berahino this summer. When it became clear that Albion weren’t going to sell, Stoke moved to bring in Wilfried Bony on loan from Manchester City, but they will surely reignite their interest in the January or the summer.
It will be interesting to see if Berahino does get some game time on Saturday after a frustrating start to the season. Pulis is unlikely to break up the Chadli/Rondon partnership after an impressive outing against West Ham, so any Berahino impact will likely come from the bench.
Palace or Bournemouth?
Albion’s first two away games of the season were tight affairs. Despite sitting back for large portions of the game, Albion always seemed comfortable against Palace, but the same can’t be said for the Bournemouth game.
The issue that Pulis’ side have is finding an outlet ball when Albion get pinned back in their own half. Rondon did a good job of providing that against Palace but Berahino was unable to do the same job at the Vitality Stadium. Albion will need Chadli and Rondon on-form to offer options on the counter-attack, as they did well on occasions against West Ham.
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