West Bromwich – Leicester City (Premier League)
West Bromwich and Leicester City will measure forces this Saturday, at the Hawthorns (West Bromwich), in a match for the 35th round of the Premier League. West Bromwich arrive here unmotivated after 3 consecutive defeats. Leicester City also hasn’t many motives to smile, since they arrive here, after an unlucky defeat against Arsenal (1-0).
West Bromwich hold the 8th place in the Premier League table with 44 points, which comes from 12 victories, 8 draws and 13 defeats, with 39 goals scored and 42 conceded. Lately, the team has been presenting bad results, since in their last 5 official matches, in this competition, they have lost 3, drew 1 and and win the other one. This sequence of results started with a 3-1 home win against Arsenal, that was followed by a 0-0 away draw against Manchester United, a 2-0 away loss against Watford, a 0-1 home loss against Southampton and a 0-1 home loss against Liverpool.
At home in the league so far, the team has played 17 matches: won 9, drew 2, and lost 6. Usually this group led by Tony Pulis is stronger and has better performances at home, since, in this season, they have already 4 consecutive home wins. At home so far they have scored 27 goals, conceding 20 in the process.
Defensively and offensively this is not one of the best organized teams of the league, scoring just 39 goals and conceding 42 so far this season. In addition they have failed to score in 3 their last 4 matches in this competition.
Both Matt Phillips and Robson-Kanu are questionable players due to injury.
Probable Lineup: Foster – Dawson, McAuley, Evans, Nyom – Fletcher, Livermore – Brunt, Morrison, McClean – Rondón.
Leicester City hold the 15th place in the Premier League table with 37 points, which comes from 10 victories, 7 draws and 16 defeats, with 41 goals scored and 54 conceded. When Claudio Ranieri was fired, and with Craig Shakespeare assuming the head coach role, the team won 5 consecutive matches and have been showing some important improvements. Lately, the team has been presenting mixed results, since in their last 5 official matches, in this competition, they have lost 2, drew 1 and and win the other 2. This sequence of results started with a 2-0 home win against Stoke City, that was followed by a 2-0 home win against Sunderland, a 4-2 away loss against Everton, a 2-2 home draw against Crystal Palace and a 1-0, and as mentioned before a 1-0 home loss against Arsenal.
Away from home in the league so far, the team has been presenting some real bad performances. They have played 17 matches: drew 4, lost 12 and only win one, scoring 15 goals and conceding 36 in the process. In addition they have failed to score in 7 of their away matches. The team have been in a very poor form away from home.
Wes Morgan is a questionable player. Slimani, Mendy and Wagué are out due to injury.
Probable Lineup: Schmeichel – Simpson, Huth, Benalouane and Chilwell – Mahrez, Ndidi, Drinkwater and Gray – Okazakia and Vardy.
In a clash that opposes two teams with both defensively and offensively difficulties, the home advantage may play a real important role.
