Our live stream ahead of Tuesdays Premier League match, WBA vs Man City is now up, kicking off at 20.15 GMT
You can keep an eye on the commentary as it happens below, but first, we take a preview into the fixture, lineups, predictions and much more…
Sam Allardyce and West Brom were on cloud nine after claiming the Black Country bragging rights over Wolverhampton Wanderers, but the relegation-threatened hosts were given a harsh reality check by West Ham last week.
Matheus Pereira had initially levelled proceedings after Jarrod Bowen’s opener, but a spectacular winner from the resurgent Michail Antonio condemned West Brom to yet another defeat – their 12th of the Premier League season.
Only Sheffield United have lost more games than the Baggies this season, and the Blades are the one team whom West Brom have managed to beat on home turf this season, with the threat of relegation looming unless Allardyce can do what he does best.
Cheltenham boss Michael Duff called on his side to produce “the biggest upset in cup history” over Man City on Saturday, and the League Two outfit were only 10 minutes away from doing just that following Alfie May’s opener in the FA Cup.
However, the quality of Guardiola’s attacking crop soon shone through as Phil Foden, Gabriel Jesus and Ferran Torres spared the visitors’ blushes in an eventual 3-1 win for the seemingly unstoppable Citizens.
Saturday’s triumph represented City’s 10th win on the bounce in all competitions – during which time they have notched up 25 goals and conceded just three – and a seventh top-flight win on the trot would propel City to the top of the pile before Manchester United face Sheffield United 24 hours later.
LAST MEETING:
The two clubs last met in December, with a resilient West Brom holding the Citizens to a 1-1 draw at the Ethihad…
PRESS CONFERENCE:
SAM ALLARDYCE
On improvements to be made…
“We’ve certainly seen improvement in trying to get our basics right.
“The big question that lies with the team at the moment is can we stop conceding goals.
“We’ll always try to be creative in attacking areas, but we also need to be more ruthless in terms of our own defending as a team.
“We need to start coming off the pitch from games where we haven’t conceded a goal. That’s the ongoing process.
“The effort of the players and the organisation of the team is looking better now.
“When we make the small errors we are making in games, we can’t let that end up costing us a goal.
“The players have to be determined and focused. I can’t criticise the players for their application.
“There’s still the slip-ups on goals conceded and that’s what we have to try and stop.
“Once we achieve that, then we can try and look at the other end.
“If we’re having to score two or three goals every game, then that’s going to be very difficult for us because the club has only managed that on a couple of occasions this season.
“I’m not covering the things up which we need to do and be better at. We still have a lot of work to do and that has to start with not conceding goals.
“We’re trying to do as best we can.
“Every game for us, we have to perform at our very best.
“We have to have consistency from here until the end of the season. That’s the only way we will achieve results.”
On Man City…
“They are in great form.
“If they beat us, it’s not a shock but if we beat them, it’ll be a shock.
“I watched them in the FA Cup at the weekend and I saw the quality of players who played in that game.
“Nearly all of those players who started at Cheltenham would start at every club in world football apart from maybe a couple of teams.
“They’ve got a fabulous squad and Pep Guardiola is able to swap, rotate and rest his players.
“They’ve shown a resilience this year. They are doing what I’m trying to do with my team. They’ve become really difficult to score against and that has given them a platform to climb up the league very quickly in recent months.
“I don’t think many people will have looked at City and thought of the main reason for their success this season to have been how resilient they’ve been at the back, as well as their outstanding attacking ability.”
PEP GUARDIOLA
“I know how good Sam Allardyce teams are on set-pieces.
“They will have worked this week on that to see how they can hurt us, but we have to discover the weak points they may have and impose our game.
“Today our training session was very good. I am optimistic to take a bus tomorrow to West Bromwich and do a good game.”
FORM:
West Bromwich Albion Premier League form: LDLLWL
West Bromwich Albion form (all competitions): DLLLWL
Manchester City Premier League form: WWWWWW
Manchester City form (all competitions): WWWWWW
LINEUPS:
West Bromwich Albion possible starting lineup:
Johnstone; O’Shea, Ajayi, Bartley, Gibbs; Livermore, Sawyers; Snodgrass, Pereira, Grosicki; Robinson
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Cancelo, Stones, Dias, Zinchenko; Rodri, Gundogan, Foden; Silva, Jesus, Sterling
THATSAGOAL TIP:
Manchester City to Win to Nil – 10/11 with FanTeam
So far this season, Manchester City have won to nil on nine occasions in the league this season. They may have drawn 1-1 with West Brom the last time these sides met, but City’s record against the bottom ten sides is remarkably consistent. Eight of their ten encounters resulted in a win with seven of those involving clean sheets.
West Brom have picked up in an attacking sense but scoring past the best defence in the league once again seems rather unlikely.
Time to take a look at our WBA vs Man City live match stream as it happens…
You must be logged in to post a comment Login