Next Saturday, 28th of February 2015, Ronald Koeman’s Southampton will travel to the West Midlands to measure forces with West Brom at The Hawthorns for round 27 of the English Premier League. The Saints are not going through the best of moments but they need a win against the Baggies if they want to preserve their place among the top five at the EPL table.

Southampton’s home defeat against Liverpool last weekend has only served to put some added pressure into the Saints’ players who are definitely not going through a very positive moment. Ronald Koeman’s boys have not managed to win any of their last five matches at St. Mary’s Stadium and because of that the team is dropping some places on the English Premier League table. Last weekend, Southampton were the best team during large periods of the match, as they enjoyed from more ball possession percentage and had several more goal attempts than Liverpool. Nevertheless, such apparent dominance didn’t help them to at least grab a point from their  clash against the Reds, since they’ve failed to respond to Coutinho’s early goal and ended up by losing by 2-0.

The defeat against Crystal Palace for the FA Cup later last January has somewhat precipitated a slow decay on Southampton’s form and, from that moment onwards, the team’s rocky foundations have, in a way, started to crumble. The upcoming match against West Brom will definitely not be a walk in the park for the Saints, especially if we have in mind the recent improvements the Baggies showed since Tony Pulis took the helm of the team. For that particular clash, Ronald Koeman is not yet certain if he will be able to rely on the services of Alderweireld, Jay Rodriguez, Isgrove and Mayuka, all still recovering from their respective injuries.

As for West Brom, the Baggies are most certainly living their best moment of the season and they have not been defeated on their last four official matches. The arrival of Tony Pulis at the helm of the team was a breath of fresh air for West Brom. The Baggies have shown fantastic improvements on both their performances and on the consistency of their game. Last weekend, West Brom secured one point from the always difficult travel to Stadium of Light and continued their amazing escape from the pits of the relegation zone.

Given both sides’ recent performances, it is fair to say that West Brom are slight favourites for the upcoming match, however, Southampton also tends to be very dangerous when playing away from home and they are very capable of causing the Baggies a major upset.

West Brom

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - DWWDL

Southampton

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LDWLL

Possible Line-ups

West Brom (4-4-2) - Foster - McAuley - Dawson - Lescott - Brunt - Gardner - Morrisson - Fletcher - Yacob - Brown - Beharino

Southampton (4-3-3) - Forster - Clyne - Fonte - Yoshida - Bertrand -  Wanyama - Schneiderlin - Ward-Prowse - Tadic - Elia - Pelle

Prediction

West Brom 1 Southampton 1