David Prutton predicts West Brom clash v Birmingham
Sky Sports pundit David Prutton has predicted that West Brom will return to winning ways with a 2-0 victory against Birmingham City on Saturday.
Slaven Bilic’s men will make the short journey to St Andrew’s this weekend in a bid to bounce back after dropping two points and losing top spot in the Championship with a 1-1 draw at Wigan on Wednesday night.
Blues also suffered a frustrating midweek as they lost 2-0 to QPR in front of the home fans and ex-Leeds midfielder Prutton expects the same scoreline this weekend when West Brom travel to the Second City.
“It’s been a strange week for Birmingham. They were good at the weekend at Reading, then really poor as the lost to QPR on Wednesday. The inconsistency will frustrate Pep Clotet,” said Prutton via the Sky Sports website.
“West Brom were held at Wigan last week. They looked really flat as their winning run came to an end. They have an unbelievably healthy lead over the sides below them, though, and could extend that with a win on Saturday.”
West Brom may have drawn against Wigan but they are still 11 points clear of third-placed Fulham and still look good to march on for automatic promotion this season.
Bilic made several changes for that trip to the DW Stadium in a bid to rest key players like Grady Diangana and Matheus Pereira but you can expect the Croatian manager to name a full-strength squad at Birmingham.
It should be a win for the Baggies, who have a good record against Blues in recent years.
Albion have not lost to their West Midlands rivals since 2006 and have won four of their last five meetings with them.
In other West Brom news, this worrying stat is something that Bilic must address over the festive period.