West Bromwich Albion vs Swansea City. Premier League.
The HawthornsAttendance21,467.
Wednesday 14 December 2016 20:37, UK
West Brom will be looking to make it three home wins on the bounce against struggling Swansea City on Wednesday at The Hawthorns (kick-off 8pm).
Tony Pulis has got a feelgood factor going at West Brom this season, losing just three of their last 11 Premier League games. The Baggies sit just four points behind Manchester United in eighth position.
Meanwhile, Swansea could make it back-to-back wins with a victory after a much-needed 3-0 success over Sunderland on Saturday.
Bob Bradley replaced Francesco Guidolin as manager on October 3 but has taken just eight points from his eight games in charge and Swansea are yet to pick up a victory on the road this season.
West Brom are without Craig Dawson as the defender serves a one-match ban.
The 26-year-old collected his fifth booking of the season in Sunday's 1-0 defeat at Chelsea so will sit out Wednesday's visit of Swansea.
Saido Berahino is not ready to return after his fitness issues but Gareth McAuley and James Morrison came through the defeat at Stamford Bridge with no issues after being injury doubts before the game.
Swansea will again be without Ki Sung-yueng and Federico Fernandez.
South Korean midfielder Ki has missed the last three games with a broken toe, while Argentina defender Fernandez suffered a similar injury earlier this month.
Bradley says that both players are "getting closer" in terms of full fitness, but will miss the second of three games in eight days, with the Welsh club visiting Middlesbrough on Saturday.
West Brom have lost six of their previous 10 Premier League games against Swansea (W3 D1).
The Swans have only failed to score once in their 10 previous Premier League clashes with the Baggies (February 2015).
Nacer Chadli has scored in two of his last three league games against Swansea.
WBA will be looking to win three successive Premier League home matches for the first time since March 2015.
The Baggies have scored just 73 goals in 71 Premier League matches under Pulis (1.03 per game).
Swansea have won just one point in their last six Premier League away matches (W0 D1 L5).
In four Premier League away games under Bradley, the Swansea have conceded 12 goals.
West Bromwich Albion have named the same starting XI in five successive matches in the Premier League - their longest ever run.
Gylfi Sigurdsson has been directly involved in eight goals in his last eight Premier League appearances for Swansea City (four goals, four assists).
The Icelandic midfielder has now had a hand in 47% of Swansea's Premier League goals in 2016 (14 goals and seven assists - 21/45).
West Brom are playing well and the game against Chelsea was in the balance at 0-0. It wouldn't have been a smash-and-grab if they had got a result.
Pulis put on an absolute show for what you have to do tactically. We all talk about Pep Guardiola and then you look at him at Leicester and he is probably the only person who has never seen Leicester play judging by the way he set his team up.
You look at Pulis and he never gets any credit. Guardiola is supposed to have invented football and they were tactically all over the place at Leicester. Pulis goes to Chelsea, who are winning every game, and Chelsea half snatch the game. West Brom were outstanding.
Swansea had a big result the other day in a must-win game against Sunderland but I can't see them winning this.
PAUL PREDICTS: 2-0 (Sky Bet odds 15/2)
Betting
West Brom are Sky Bet's 21/10 favourites for the victory, with Swansea 13/5, while the draw is priced at 12/5. The Swans were pushed out to 11/10 to face the drop after their 3-0 victory over Sunday at the weekend, while their host's chances of going down have been all but dismissed at 20/1.
Salomon Rondon heads the first goalscorer betting at 4/1, with Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente rated the main threats from Bradley's squad at 13/2 apiece.
