‘Impetus will be on the Baggies’ – Michael Owen predicts winner in West Brom v Aston Villa
Michael Owen predicts West Brom to lose against Aston Villa when the two West Midlands rivals meet at The Hawthorns on Sunday night.
Sam Allardyce will take charge of the Baggies for the first time this weekend after replacing Slaven Bilic at the helm on Wednesday.
Even though Big Sam is bound to shore up the Albion defence, ex-Liverpool striker Owen has tipped Villa to earn all three points in a 2-0 win in the Black Country.
“A 1-1 draw at the Etihad wasn’t enough for Slaven Bilić to keep his job at the Hawthorns. Sam Allardyce takes the reins and his first match is up against a good Aston Villa side,” Owen wrote on the BetVictor website.
“Villa claimed a classic smash and grab victory at Molineux last weekend. That’s what they are all about. If they can withstand pressure for long enough, they have all the tools at the other end to cause you problems. That said, they somehow failed to score against a determined Burnley side in mid-week, despite having 27 attempts at the Burnley goal!
“With West Brom at home, the impetus will be on the Baggies to play on the front foot. If this happens, I think Villa will have too much with the likes of Grealish and Watkins on the counter.”
New manager bounce?
It pains us to say it but Aston Villa have been really good this season.
Dean Smith’s side have won six of their opening 11 matches and Jack Grealish has scored six goals and supplied six assists in 12 appearances across all competitions.
They’re going to be tough to beat but West Brom will be relying on the bounce a new manager usually gives them to get a result against their local rivals.
When West Brom have appointed a new permanent manager in the middle of a season, they usually avoid defeat in their first game.
Alan Pardew, Tony Pulis, Pepe Mel, Roy Hodgson and Tony Mowbray are all the most-recent managers to take charge while a season is in progress and none of them lost their first matches in charge.
Allardyce is someone who will make Albion a lot tougher to beat but the old cliche says that the history books get thrown out of the window in matches like this.
In other West Brom news, Jonathan Greening has blasted the club for sacking Bilic and has made a claim about Tony Pulis.
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