West Brom will visit Stamford Bridge this weekend to face Chelsea in the Premier League and by the looks of it, manager Sam Allardyce has a very clear picture of how he wants his side to play.
The Baggies are currently 19th on the league table with just 18 points and they have failed to register a win in their previous three matches. Chelsea, on the other hand, are on a roll under their new manager and while talking to the press, the West Brom manager made his intentions pretty clear that he is likely to set up a defence-minded side on Saturday.
He said in his pre-match press conference: “We’ve done very well against Manchester United and Liverpool. Man United certainly should’ve been a win.
“We did extremely well against Everton and lost. We had enough chances to win that game too. If we get that level of performance and some proper finishing, we could pull off one of the biggest shocks the Premier League has seen recently on Saturday.
“We can’t fly into Chelsea because they’re so good they can just rip you apart. It’s about meticulous planning and about making sure we are as defensively sound as Chelsea are.
“Chelsea are where they are because of how good they are defensively. They hardly ever concede goals.
“They’ve been keeping plenty of clean sheets and that’s why they’ve got themselves up to fourth. We’ve got better at stopping conceding stupid goals, but we’ve not managed to stick our chances away.
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“Chelsea will be very difficult to break down and most people who watch Premier League football will give us no chance. The Albion fans will give us a chance because they always will. We’ve got to try and make them proud of us on Saturday.”
West Brom have a goal difference of -37 in the Premier League this season so we obviously do not expect them to go out all guns blazing at the Bridge. But Sam Allardyce’s words have made it absolutely clear that winning even a point will seem like a victory for his side.
Chelsea have been defensively rock-solid under Thomas Tuchel but they are not scoring too many goals either. And the Baggies manager will look to take these statistics to his advantage and possibly park the bus on Saturday.
The Blues are currently just about holding onto the fourth spot on the league table so if they pick up anything other than a win this weekend then they will surely slip out of those coveted Champions League spots.
