2023-24 Sky Bet Championship: Week 22 – Sunday

West Brom host Stoke City at The Hawthorns in a Championship clash.

Victory would see West Brom return to fifth position in the table, whilst Stoke will move up to 19th with either a win or draw.

 

Team News

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Josh Maja is ruled out for West Brom after he missed their midweek win at Rotherham with an ankle injury.

Matt Phillips (hamstring) and Daryl Dike (Achilles) remain absent.

Stoke will be without defender, Ben Pearson as he begins a two-match ban following his tenth booking of the league campaign.

Tyrese Campbell (knock), Sead Haksabanovic (groin), Ben Wilmot (knee) and Emre Tezgel (unspecified) remain absent.

 

When is Kick-Off?

West Brom host Stoke at BET365 Stadium on Sunday 17 December in a 12pm GMT kick-off, live on Sky Sports in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• West Brom have lost three of their last five league meetings against Stoke (W2, L3).
• Stoke have claimed seven points from three of their last seven visits to West Brom (W2, D1, L4).
• Stoke’s Jordan Thompson picked up yellow cards in both meetings last season against West Brom.
• West Brom have scored first in three of their last four home matches (W3, L1).
• Stoke have claimed four points in their last five away matches (W1, D1, L3).

 

Prediction

Although they look firmly within the play-off race, West Brom just need to continue rebuilding momentum following their recent blip after a clinical win at Rotherham, where they simply took their chances with patience and defended well throughout.

Stoke meanwhile are still without a permanent manager which makes them tricky to predict here in terms of tactics, having produced a dominant hard-working performance in their 1-1 draw against Swansea but it is possible that they could go more defensive against the Baggies here.

Should that be the case then West Brom could well be in for another tough game testing their resilience and patience, especially if Stoke can avoid that late mistake which cost them the win in midweek but these Baggies should ultimately have enough to snatch a victory.

Prediction: WBA 1-0 Stoke

Result: WBA 1-1 Stoke