Norwich City vs West Bromwich Albion Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

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Haydn Cunningham Oct 14, 2015 @ 01:53 pm

Alex Neal came to Norwich City from up north in Scotland but whenever he takes his side to the Premier League’s most northerly point, they’ve struggled significantly. The TV cameras also do Norwich City no favours as both times they've appeared on TV they've lost comfortably to Southampton and now Newcastle United. On the only game on Sunday afternoon with Sky Sports showing the coverage, they were demolished 6-2 with Georginio Wijnaldum scoring 4. Norwich had enjoyed a relatively good start on their return to England’s top flight but back to back defeats to Leicester City and now Newcastle has left them in 16^th place. It marked Newcastle’s first win of the season also and Neal will be bitterly disappointed at the result.

West Brom meanwhile were hosting the other North-East side of the Premier League as they enjoyed a narrow 1-0 victory over Sunderland thanks to a controversial goal from Saido Berahino. After 3 defeats on the bounce, Tony Pulis will be grateful of 3 points no matter how they come and he’ll argue that it was never a foul on goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon as Berahino possibly committed 3 offences in the space of a few seconds but he eventually tapped the ball over the line to seal the win. It will be even more pleasing for Pulis given that Sunderland were playing their first game under new manager Sam Allardyce and traditionally teams improve when a new manager is at the helm. The victory has risen them to 12^th and signals their 3^rd Premier League victory this season all by the 1-0 score.

These 2 sides have already met this season in the 3^rd round of the Capital One Cup where Norwich comfortably won 3-0 but both sides made a number of changes from the previous game. 3 2^nd half goals for Norwich capped off a relatively poor game. West Brom just edge the head-to-head over Norwich with 19 victories to 17 in 48 meetings overall and do also have a better away record this season with 7 points from a possible 12 compared to 4 points from a possible 15 at home.

Alex Neal openly admitted he made a mistake in bringing off Alexander Tettey for Wes Hoolahan as they attempted to get a result from St.James Park and the tactical move left them exposed on countless occasions. The Scot is likely to make changes after the 6-2 mauling but has no fresh injury concerns. Claudio Yacob is just 1 more yellow card away from a 1 match suspension after picking up a yellow in their win over Sunderland. Youssef Mulumbu will be desperate to return to fitness against his former club.

Norwich City

Stats: W-2 L-4 D-3

Recent Form - DWDLL

West Brom 

Stats: W-3 L-4 D-2

Recent Form - DLLLW

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Norwich City (4-5-1) – Ruddy, Wisdom, R.Martin, Bassong, Olsson, Tettey, Howson, Redmond, Hoolahan, Brady, Mbokani. 

West Brom  (4-4-2) – Myhill, Dawson, Evans, McAuley, Brunt, Fletcher, Yacob, Sessegnon, McLean, Berahino, Rondon.

Injury List/Suspended Players

Norwich City- Grabban (inj), Hooper (inj), Mulumbu (inj)
West Brom – Foster (inj), Morrison (inj).

League Positions