Both teams drew in midweek but will have differing emotions about their results. West Brom gave away a two-goal lead at home to Newcastle United, while Palace earned their first away point of the season drawing 0-0 at Brighton and Hove Albion.
When you haven’t won a game since August, confidence isn’t going to be sky high. A win is what they need to get back on track and edge away from the bottom three, but it wasn’t to be on Tuesday. Albion went 2-0 up thanks to goals from Robson-Kanu and Field but then blew it in the second half with a Johnny Evans own goal costing them the three points.
Home form hasn’t been great this season for West Brom. They started the season with a 1-0 home win over Bournemouth but haven’t tasted league success at the Hawthorns since. Six league games have produced just four points and it’s now 11 league games without a victory.
Now they have two vital games at home to bottom of the table Crystal Palace followed by a trip to one from bottom Swansea. They need to get some points from this game, not just to get back in winning ways and breed some confidence but the fact those two fixtures are followed by games against Liverpool and Manchester United.
Alan Pardew is expected to be in charge by the time this game takes place but it’s hardly the most inspiring of appointments. One of his first jobs will be to sort out Albion’s defence. It’s now ten games in a row conceding goals. The team may be starting to score goals but if the defence can’t hold it together then getting that elusive win is going to be incredibly difficult.
It’s December and Crystal Palace still haven’t scored an away league goal and it’s nine away Premier League games in total since they last found the net on the road. The goalless draw at Brighton and Hove Albion did provide two bits of good news for the Eagles. It was their first away point of the season and perhaps more importantly, their first clean sheet of the season.
The good news continues in the fact that they are now on a run of three league games unbeaten. They don’t face a top seven side until December 28th, so there’s the chance to pick up some points and possibly get out of the bottom three and their fans thought that was an impossibility a few months ago.
Their away record is of course an appalling one but on closer inspection it doesn’t look quite so bad. They have had to travel to Liverpool, Burnley and both the Manchester clubs and wouldn’t expect to get many points from that quartet of games even if they were in mid-table. Take away the two hammerings in Manchester and five away league games have seen them only concede on four occasions with four 1-0 defeats so far on their travels.
Conclusion
These two sides could so do with winning this game. Strangely, despite the fact it’s Palace who are rock bottom of the table, it’s West Brom who desperately want three points. Albion will still be kicking them over giving away that 2-0 lead on Tuesday and what a difference it would have made for them if they had hung on in that match. Palace have four points from their last two games and coming off the pitch without having conceded proves they are improving. This looks like being a tight game and going for under 2.5 goals looks one to go for, especially with Palace yet to score away in the league.
The Key Stats
Last Five Premier League Results – Most recent first
West Brom – DDLLL
Crystal Palace – DWDLD
Head to Head – Last Five League Meetings
04/03/17 – West Brom 0 Crystal Palace 2
13/08/16 – Crystal Palace 0 West Brom 1
27/02/16 – West Brom 3 Crystal Palace 2
03/10/15 – Crystal Palace 2 West Brom 0
18/04/15 – Crystal Palace 0 West Brom 2
- Five of the last six league and cup games between these two sides have had under 2.5 goals scored in them.
- West Brom have only won one of their last four home games against Crystal Palace in all competitions.
- Crystal Palace are unbeaten in their last three league games with one defeat in the last five.
- Crystal Palace have failed to score in their last nine away Premier League games.
- The clean sheet at Brighton was the first by Palace in the Premier League this season.
- The last three away Palace games have only seen two goals scored.
- West Brom last won a league home game on the opening day of the season.
- West Brom have gone 11 league games without a win.
- West Brom have one win in their last 11 home league games.
- The last four West Brom home league games have all had over 2.5 goals scored in them.
- Albion have only kept two clean sheets in their last 13 home league games.