By Gary Fulcher, Daniel Rhodes and Mihail Vladimirov.
Liverpool’s crushing 4-0 defeat of Everton on Tuesday evening may not guarantee us a top four finish but the psychological advantage gained from such an emphatic victory over the Toffees should not be underestimated. Since the back to back 1-2 defeats against Manchester City and Chelsea at the end of December, we’ve won five and drawn one, with 17 goals scored and five conceded in the Premier League and FA Cup. All despite a mounting injury list that has robbed us of six key players.
Next up is a trip to the Hawthorns on Sunday afternoon – 1.30pm kick off UK time – where West Bromwich Albion await. The Baggies currently sit in 15th place having picked up 22 points from 23 games, leaving them just three points above the relegation zone. They’ve won three of their previous 11 home games in the Premier League – 3-0 against Sunderland, 2-0 against Crystal Palace and 1-0 against Newcastle Utd – with four draws and four defeats making up the numbers. Under new Head Coach Pepe Mel, the Baggies drew their last outing at the Hawthorns 1-1 against Everton and despite going 2-0 up after nine minutes against Aston Villa at Villa Park on Wednesday night, they went on to lose 4-3.
A Luis Suarez hat-trick and a strike from Daniel Sturridge secured a 4-1 victory at Anfield over Albion back in October but we did lose the corresponding fixture last season 0-3 in what was Brendan Rodgers’ first Premier League game as Reds boss. Goals from Gera, Odemwingie (penalty) and Lukaku made it two defeats from our last three visits to the Hawthorns, although since the Baggies made their return to the top flight in 2002 after 16 years boing-boinging between the lower divisions, we’ve won five of our seven trips to the West Midlands.
Our biggest league victory away against the Baggies is 6-0 from the 2002/03 campaign, while West Brom’s record league victory at home against us is 6-1 which came during the 1935/36 season.
The rest of this article is for subscribers only.
[ttt-subscribe-article]