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Sam Allardyce criticises Premier League over fixture scheduling

Sam Allardyce criticises Premier League over fixture scheduling
© Reuters
West Brom are nine points from safety with time running out.

West Brom boss Sam Allardyce has again rounded on the Premier League ahead of the Baggies' crucial derby at Aston Villa.

Albion are second bottom and nine points from safety ahead of Sunday's trip to Villa Park after Thursday's 3-0 defeat at Leicester.

Allardyce hit out at the Premier League's scheduling, with Villa having had 24 hours more recovery time than the Baggies after they lost 2-1 to Manchester City on Wednesday.

The boss had previously been critical as he wanted to play Villa last weekend and was also upset when Albion's game against Everton last month was rescheduled at short notice.

"There are small margins in this game and the fact we can't recover as much as Aston Villa has massively disadvantaged us," said Allardyce.

"People can say we are making excuses before we start but it's a fact. They didn't need to give us this game (Leicester) on this day. If you did then you certainly didn't need to give us the next game on Sunday.

"Villa played on Wednesday and Leicester are playing next Monday. Why us? We got the same treatment, extremely poorly, a few weeks ago when we played Fulham and Newcastle.

"They were going to be two of the biggest games we could face and then they go 'oh, by the way, you're playing Everton on Thursday night'.

"We wanted to play Villa last Saturday or Sunday, they wanted to play us and got blankly refused. Don't know why. We don't have another game after Sunday until next Monday against Wolves. Why? We haven't been treated fairly at all."

After Thursday's defeat at the King Power Stadium, Allardyce targeted five wins from Albion's final six games to stay in the Premier League.

Villa sit in mid-table with their European hopes fading and remain without injured skipper Jack Grealish but Allardyce, missing the injured Branislav Ivanovic, expects a typical derby.

"It's Aston Villa against West Brom. It's a head-to-head West Midlands derby, everyone will be up for it," he said.

"We have to win it but we won't win it unless we defend correctly. It won't be anything but a ferocious football match.

"It's about my players getting back to the level of performance of the last 10 matches. That came about by us having one of the best defensive records in the league.

"We have to produce the same football we produced against Southampton and Chelsea. It was always going to be difficult to continue winning."

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CLeicester CityLeicester453141089395097
2Ipswich TownIpswich452712690573393
3Leeds UnitedLeeds45279980413990
4Southampton452591185622384
5Norwich CityNorwich4521101479631673
6West Bromwich AlbionWest Brom4520121367472072
7Hull City451913136859970
8Middlesbrough45199176861766
9Coventry CityCoventry4517131569571264
10Preston North EndPreston45189185664-863
11Bristol City451711175347662
12Cardiff CityCardiff45195215165-1462
13Swansea CitySwansea451512185964-557
14Watford451317156058256
15Sunderland45168215252056
16Millwall451511194455-1156
17Queens Park RangersQPR451411204557-1253
18Stoke CityStoke451411204560-1553
19Blackburn RoversBlackburn451311215874-1650
20Sheffield WednesdaySheff Weds45148234268-2650
21Plymouth ArgylePlymouth451212215870-1248
22Birmingham CityBirmingham451211224965-1647
23Huddersfield TownHuddersfield45918184875-2745
RRotherham UnitedRotherham45412293287-5524


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