West Bromwich Albion welcome Burnley to The Hawthorns in the first part of a Monday Night Football double bill as both teams look for their first league wins of the campaign.
A win for West Brom could see them climb out of the relegation zone at Sheffield United’s expense whilst Burnley can do the same with victory with the winning team in this match going 17th in the table.
Team News
Ahmed Hegazi is available for West Brom after recovering from a hamstring injury which kept him out of their opening four league games before the international break.
Kieran Gibbs is back from suspension and could feature alongside Chelsea loanee, Conor Gallagher who is fully fit unlike Callum Robinson who has been on international duty for Republic of Ireland and is a fitness doubt.
Hal Robson-Kanu is out for a month after injuring his arm in the Baggies’ defeat at Southampton a fortnight ago.
Burnley could welcome Jay Rodriguez, Kevin Long, Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Bailey Peacock-Farrell back into the matchday squad, although the quartet will be subject to late fitness tests.
Matt Lowton (knee), Ben Mee (thigh) and Jack Cork (ankle) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- West Brom are unbeaten in five of last six meetings against Burnley (W3, D2, L1).
- Burnley have won just one of last 12 trips to The Hawthorns (W1, D2, L9)
- Either team are yet to score a penalty after six previous Premier League meetings, although Burnley were awarded one spot kick which was missed.
- No Premier League player made more clearances in the opening four rounds of fixtures than West Brom’s Kyle Bartley, who produced 27 clearances of which 17 were headed clearances.
- No Burnley player has had more shots in their four opening league matches than Chris Wood’s six shots.
Prediction
West Brom will be disappointed with how their season has started because they really should of gotten a win under their belt in their last home outing against Chelsea because they do show plenty of potential going forward except in final third, yet are consistently poor in defending which is a worry.
Burnley have also begun the season badly but at least have the excuse of a serious injury crisis with several key players like Jack Cork and Ben Mee sidelined, although that does not excuse some of their shoddy defending at times despite still having that quality up front to trouble the opposition.
I consequently don’t feel like this will be a classic by any stretch but if the Baggies can rediscover their performance from their last home match then they should have the edge against a toothless Burnley team.
Prediction: WBA 1-0 Burnley
Result: WBA 0-0 Burnley