High stakes, poor outcomes in bottom two battle
Sam Allardyce's West Bromwich Albion face their second big relegation clash in the space of four days as he leads his troops to Bramall Lane to face bottom side Sheffield United. At the time of writing, the visitors are six points off safety with a far inferior goal difference to Brighton & Hove Albion, effectively making it seven points they need to claw back over the remaining 17 matches, starting on Tuesday night. The hosts are not yet condemned to oblivion, and have gained two wins from their last four matches. If they could keep up that ratio until the end of the campaign, they'd have a chance of making a miraculous escape. Read our preview here:
Wilder times ahead
Those two precious victories gained in January have injected just that smidgen of hope that a remarkable survival story could yet be written, especially when the triumph over Manchester United at Old Trafford whilst missing several key first teamers is taken into account. The wins have been sandwiched by defeats to Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, games which probably would've been marked down as losses even last season, when Chris Wilder's side were the surprise package. At home to West Brom however, and the scales are much more finely balanced, and there's an argument to suggest that the Blades are more likely to take the game to the opposition than the other way round. Retaining two up front gives the South Yorkshire club the impetus to play a wider variety of passes to in the hope of keeping the ball than their rivals will be able to, and forward Oli Burke will have undoubtedly gained confidence after breaking his duck at the expense of the Red Devils. Question marks remain over the stand-ins in the back three (Ethan Ampadu's diving header back to 'keeper Aaron Ramsdale under little pressure was suicidal, for example), but the well-balanced midfield ought to have the running of large swathes of the match.
Mbaye, bae?
West Brom were perhaps a touch fortunate to glean a point from their encounter with 18th-placed Fulham at the Hawthorns. The Cottagers had double the amount of shots on goal, and were able to pressurise their adversaries into losing possession far too often for Allardyce's liking. Nevertheless, a switch to a 4-4-1-1 helped to provide a little more stability from a tactical point of view, and more encouragingly, the debut of Senegalese striker Mbaye Diagne, on loan from Turkish giants Galatasaray, was a productive one. The 29 year-old came off the bench to lay on an assist for the impressive Matheus Pereira to give his side the lead temporarily. The new loanee brings with him a superb scoring record from the Süper Lig in 2020/2021, and has the exact sort of playstyle that's characteristic of a lone frontman in an Allardyce side. He doesn't have long to begin to make his scoring mark, but should have numerous chances created from the flanks to make an impression on Tuesday if he gets the nod for his first start.
Fork in the road
Both teams will be desperate for a decisive result to give the proverbial (and topical) shot in the arm to their respective bids to stay in the top flight. The Baggies, despite their change of manager recently, have not managed to convert that into any sort of momentum. Indeed, their only win in the last two and a half months remains away in the Black Country clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers, who are also woefully out of form. These factors combine to make a draw neither will want the likeliest outcome; bet365 are offering very generous odds of 3.40 for just that to happen.