View: Bilic likely to stick rather than twist – West Brom predicted XI v Bristol City
West Brom are back on the road this weekend when they travel to Ashton Gate to take on fellow promotion hopefuls Bristol City.
The Baggies saw a three-match winning run come to an end last week when they drew 2-2 against Nottingham Forest at The Hawthorns.
While it was two points dropped, it still saw Slaven Bilic’s league-leading side extend the gap to third by seven points.
As for Bristol City, they lost 1-0 against second-placed Leeds, who made some ground on West Brom with their first win of February.
West Brom will no doubt want to get back to winning ways on Saturday when they take on the Robins and we predict that Bilic will name an unchanged starting line-up.
Bilic has named a consistent starting line-up for the last three matches so there is a very good chance that he will keep the same team for the trip to Bristol.
Sam Johnstone is expected to start in goals behind a back-four of Dara O’Shea, Semi Ajayi, Kyle Bartley and Conor Townsend.
Kieran Gibbs is getting closer to a return to fitness but Townsend is likely to keep hold of his left-back slot while Darnell Furlong will probably have to make do with a spot on the bench again due to O’Shea’s impressive form.
Jake Livermore and Romaine Sawyers are predicted to start in the deeper-lying central roles with Filip Krovinovic just ahead of him.
Callum Robinson is expected to start on the left with Matheus Pereira on the right-wing.
Although he has not scored in his last six Championship outings, Hal Robson-Kanu is expected to keep his spot up front.
In other West Brom news, Jeff Stelling has predicted the scoreline of the clash with Bristol City.