West Bromwich Albion resume their battle for the Championship top spot this weekend as Birmingham City visit The Hawthorns. Barring a disastrous run from either of the top two, the Baggies and Leeds United will fight for the title over the remaining nine games. With Leeds having to wait until Sunday to restart their season, Albion will go top if they avoid defeat on Saturday.
West Bromwich Albion Resume Title Fight as Birmingham City Visit
West Bromwich Albion Dominate Previous Meetings
The Baggies sit comfortably in second place, just one point behind Leeds. Their results were inconsistent in the weeks before lockdown with two wins, two draws and two defeats from their last six in all competitions, including their FA Cup loss to Newcastle United.
Birmingham are almost certainly safe from relegation in 16th place. They sit eight points above the relegation places with next season already in mind. Their run before lockdown saw them register four draws and two defeats from their last six games.
Albion are winless in their last two league games and failed to score on both occasions. They last went three consecutive games without scoring in December 2017 when in the Premier League. Birmingham, meanwhile, are winless in five league games. Only Hull City are enduring a longer winless run amongst current Championship sides.
Five of the last seven meetings between these sides have been won by the Baggies, the other two ended all square. The Blues have not beaten their Midland rivals since October 2006. They gave up four points to Albion last season and were beaten 3-2 in their meeting earlier this season.
Team News
Nathan Ferguson is the only West Brom player unavailable to Slaven Bilić, otherwise, it’s a clean bill of health. Grady Diangana and Ahmed Hegazi are both fit after missing games before lockdown with hamstring injuries. It’s the right kind of selection headache for Bilić who confessed to WBA TV that he may even have too many options.
Birmingham have Jeremie Bela back following his hamstring pull in February. However, they will be without Kerim Mrabti and Jacques Maghoma. They have both decided to leave the squad at the end of their contracts later this month. Josh McEachran is also out as he continues to recover from an ACL injury.
Prediction
Lockdown has allowed West Brom to return to near full strength with almost everyone available. They now have a scary amount of quality and back up options available to them and will be expected to take the three points. If Blues are to get anything out of this game, it will come via set-pieces. No Championship side has scored more goals from corners this season than Birmingham (13).
Prediction: West Bromwich Albion 2-0 Birmingham City
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