West Bromwich Albion welcome Millwall to The Hawthorns on Saturday, and the hosts will be aiming to continue their unbeaten league start, after winning four of their first five league games.
The Lions will know a tough game awaits them at the weekend, but the visitors will be buoyed by beating Blackpool before the international break, which was their first league win of the season.
Match preview
© Reuters
The Baggies have had an incredible start to their season under new boss Valerien Ismael, collecting 13 points from a possible 15, only dropping points in an opening-day draw away to Bournemouth.
They currently sit second in the table and will aim to keep pace at the top, and after scoring seven goals in their two home games in the league, they will be confident that they can pick up another three points this weekend.
Finding the net has been the host's speciality this season, scoring 12 goals in their first five fixtures - only Fulham have scored more in the Championship this term.
Furthermore, West Brom have been solid at the other end of the pitch as well, only conceding five times in the league; they actually conceded more in their 6-0 League Cup defeat to Arsenal than they have across their opening five games.
As The Baggies are in irresistible form, they will be confident of accomplishing something they have not achieved since 1973, which is winning consecutive games against Millwall - they won the previous encounter 2-0 in February 2020.
© Reuters
However, for Millwall the season has not started as well as their hosts, collecting five points so far this season, but encouragingly they did obtain their first league win before the international period after Jake Cooper won the game late on to beat 10-man Blackpool 2-1.
Although, Millwall are still searching for the first away victory this campaign, and it will be a difficult task for that milestone to be achieved this weekend.
The visitors will be hoping Jed Wallace continues his superb form, as out of the six league goals Millwall have scored, the Millwall star has scored three of them and assisted another.
One area of concern for The Lions is that in their last nine league games, they have failed to keep a clean sheet, but on a positive note they have scored in every game this season.
Additionally, Millwall's last league trip to West Brom saw them pick up a point and Gary Rowett would most likely accept a similar result at the weekend.
- D
- W
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
- W
- W
- L
- W
- D
- D
- L
- L
- W
- W
- D
- L
- L
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
West Brom will be without the services of Dara O'Shea for four to six months after the defender fractured his ankle playing for the Republic of Ireland.
New signing Kean Bryan could make his debut for the club and is in line to replace O'Shea in the back three for the Millwall game.
However, Matt Clarke is still out injured with a hamstring problem, but top scorer Callum Robinson is back available after recovering from Covid, and is likely to come into the starting lineup.
Mason Bennett and Ryan Leonard returned to training this week, although, the match at the weekend may come too soon and the most that can be expected of the pair would be a place on the bench.
Defenders Shaun Hutchinson and Danny McNamara are still unavailable with quadricep and groin injuries respectively.
Sheyi Ojo has joined on loan from Liverpool and will come into the squad, but after picking up their first league win last time out, Gary Rowett is likely to name the same side that began the game against Blackpool.
West Bromwich Albion possible starting lineup:
Johnstone; Ajayi, Bartley, Bryan; Furlong, Mowatt, Livermore, Townsend; Diangana, Grant, Robinson
Millwall possible starting lineup:
Bialkowski; Ballard, Cooper, Wallace; Mitchell, Saville, Kieftenbeld, Malone; Afobe, Wallace, Smith
We say: West Bromwich Albion 3-1 Millwall
West Brom have scored at least three goals in their first two home league games, and they could continue that run against Millwall.
The visitors always threaten going forward, but do have defensive vulnerabilities, which could be exploited by West Brom, so a flurry of goals can be expected in this fixture.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Millwall win with a probability of 40.83%. A win for West Bromwich Albion had a probability of 32.41% and a draw had a probability of 26.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Millwall win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.86%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.57%) and 0-2 (7.32%). The likeliest West Bromwich Albion win was 1-0 (9.44%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.71%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 12.7% likelihood.
