2020-21 Premier League: Week 38 – Leeds United vs West Brom

Leeds United welcome West Bromwich Albion to Elland Road on the final day of 2020-21 Premier League season. 

Victory could see Leeds finish as high as seventh and snatch the Europa Conference League qualification spot, providing that Tottenham, Everton and Arsenal all lose and particularly by a large margin in Spurs’ case.

West Brom meanwhile can finish 18th with a win providing that Fulham lose elsewhere.

 

Team News

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Diego Llorente is ruled out for Leeds with a muscle injury suffered in Tuesday’s win at Southampton.

Adam Forshaw (muscle) and Helder Costa (back) remain ruled out, whilst Robin Koch and Mateusz Klich have been both given early leave in order to prepare for this summer’s Euros.

West Brom could be without Matheus Pereira after the midfielder suffered a knock in Wednesday’s loss to West Ham.

Branislav Ivanovic (hamstring) and Robert Snodgrass (back) remain absent.

 

Stat Attack

• Leeds have avoided defeat in three Premier League meetings against West Brom (W2, D1).
• West Brom have won just one of their last five top-flight trips to Elland Road (W1, D2, L2), with both draws finishing goalless.
• Four of Patrick Bamford’s 46 shots on target have hit the woodwork this season.
• Two of West Brom’s 34 league goals this season have come from own goals, courtesy of Man City’s Ruben Dias and West Ham’s Tomas Soucek.
• Leeds have lost their only previous home match this season to be refereed by David Cootes, losing 1-0 to Wolves in mid-October.

 

Prediction

Leeds certainly found themselves up against equal opposition in Southampton on quality in midweek, yet they weathered a bright start from the Saints and got themselves into the match through persistence which paid dividends with two clinical winners.

West Brom meanwhile were lucky to lead against West Ham in midweek because they were quite poor for a fair proportion of the match, so I am interested to see how they fare here in Sam Allardyce’s final game as manager.

Leeds though do have a slim shot at achieving Europa Conference League qualification but if they play well like they did in their last home game and West Brom show no improvement, I can see a comfortable result here.

Prediction: Leeds 2-0 WBA