West Brom vs Stoke City Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2011-08-28 - West Brom vs Stoke City

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

West Brom v Stoke City
Football : English Premier League
Sunday 28 August 2011 - Kickoff 3pm

West Brom

Roy Hodgson did a very good job at the Hawthornes when he took over from Roberto Di Matteo in the new year and he did save them from the drop when it looked like West Brom were in an irreversible slide to the Championship. The Baggies have been unfortunate with the fixture list to start the season, although they have shown plenty of promise that things will be ok come May.

A visit from the Champions and a trip to Chelsea, where West Brom lost 6-0 last season, was always going to be a tough way to open the new season. However, West Brom have been praised in losing efforts as they have pushed their more illustrious opponents all the way but they still sit in 18th position as one of two teams that has played 2 games and are yet to pick up a point.

They lost 1-2 to Manchester United at home on the opening day of the season, but West Brom must consider themselves a touch unlucky after conceding an own goal with 10 minutes remaining. That result was only the 2nd defeat at home they had suffered in 10 games, the other was against Chelsea towards the end of last season.

Peter Odemwingie has recently signed a new contract at the club and is pushing to return to the starting line up ahead of Somen Tchoyi. There are no other injury worries for Roy Hodgson.

Stoke City

Tony Pulis guided Stoke City through to the group stages of the Europa League with a comfortable 5-1 aggregate win over Thun that was completed on Thursday. He has admitted this may cost Stoke a few points in the League, but also felt the fans deserve a run in Europe after all their support over the years.

Stoke have picked up 2 points from their opening 2 games of the season, including a 0-0 draw at home with Chelsea. They played very well in their first away game of the season and earned a 1-1 draw at Norwich in the final moments of the game after dominating most of the 2nd half.

The Potters away form was a real issue for them last season in the League as they lost 13 of their 19 away games, but this season has started differently as they have won both European games on their travels at Hadjuk Split and Thun. These results, along with the draw at Norwich, means Stoke have lost just 1 of their last 6 away competitive games.

Robert Huth and Matthew Etherington are both back in the squad after missing the home win over Thun on Thursday. Jonathan Woodgate is also likely to be restored to the line up after being rested.

Head to Head

Stoke City are definitely West Brom's bogey team of recent times, winning 7 of their last 9 games against them over the last few seasons.

Stoke had won 4 in a row against the Baggies before a 1-1 draw at the Brittania Stadium last season, a game in which West Brom scored in injury time.

West Brom have drawn 1 and lost 3 of their last 4 games at home against Stoke, and have lost the last 2 games here against them including a 0-3 reverse last season.

Prediction

Sometimes you get these weird situations where one team seems to hold the Indian sign over another and there is no reason for it- Stoke's dominance of West Brom is one of those situations.

It was only an injury time goal from Carlos Vela that prevented Stoke doing the double over West Brom for the 2nd time in 3 years in the Premier League and it is understandable that the home fans are slightly nervous when Stoke are due in town.

Tony Pulis has done an excellent job at Stoke and I think he has brought in some quality players. The likes of Matthew Etherington and Jermaine Pennant will cause problems by providing width for the side and they have a couple of strikers up front in Kenwyn Jones and Jon Walters that can get goals.

West Brom like getting the ball down and playing football, but that seems to struggle to break down a dogged Stoke defence that has been strengthened in the Summer.

I struggle to believe West Brom will get more than 1 goal as the team has failed to score more than 1 goal in any of the last 9 games against Stoke and I think Stoke can grab another 3 points against a team they enjoy playing.

However, I am going to be a little careful and play them on the Draw No Bet market at a very reasonable 2.63 at various layers.

The Statistics :

WBA LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-08-14	L	1-2	H v Man_Utd
	2011-05-14	W	1-0	H v Everton
	2011-04-30	W	2-1	H v Aston_Villa
	2011-04-16	L	1-3	H v Chelsea
	2011-04-02	W	2-1	H v Liverpool
	2011-03-19	D	2-2	H v Arsenal

STOKE_CITY LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-08-21	D	1-1	A v Norwich
	2011-05-17	L	3-0	A v Man_City
	2011-04-30	D	0-0	A v Blackpool
	2011-04-23	D	1-1	A v Aston_Villa
	2011-04-09	L	3-2	A v Tottenham
	2011-03-05	L	3-0	A v West_Ham