View: 30y/o was MotM – 3 things we learned from West Brom win v Preston
West Brom matched Leeds and made it five wins in a row on Monday night at Deepdale, but they left it late.
However, the 1-0 means that Slaven Bilic’s side go back to the top, two points clear of Leeds and seven ahead of Fulham in third.
Here are the talking points from the match on Monday night…
Penalty?
With the game heading for 0-0, Kyle Edwards went down late on after contact with Declan Rudd in the box. The ref pointed to the spot straight away and Charlie Austin kept his cool to send the keeper the wrong way. The Preston players weren’t happy with the decision and replays showed the contact was, shall we say minimal? But we’re not convinced VAR would have overturned it if it had been available. It has to be a clear mistake from the referee and no-matter-what replay you watch, it’s hard to be absolutely sure. In real-time, the referee had no chance and Rudd shouldn’t have been so reckless.
All Baggies
It was a deserved result. If you look at the attack momentum graph from SofaScore, there was only one team in the game to win it. The first half was embarrassingly one-sided and while Preston came back into the game a bit in the second half, it was still all West Brom. Penalty, or no penalty, the right team won on Monday night. West Brom enjoyed 65% of possession and had 11 shots, with four on target. Preston only had two on target all night.
Livermore the man
Jake Livermore was our man of the match on Monday. He was everywhere in the first-half and made sure all the 50/50s were his. We needed him to help snuff out the Preston threat in the second half. A proper performance from the 30-year-old midfielder.
In other West Brom news, Emile Heskey has shared his thoughts on Harvey Barnes’ loan spell at The Hawthorns.