Mark Lawrenson predicts West Brom v Crystal Palace
West Brom are desperate for a win at Crystal Palace on Saturday to reignite their slim survival hopes but Mark Lawrenson predicts pain for Sam Allardyce.
Albion have endured a mixed bag of results in recent times, losing just once but also emerging victorious on only one occasion in their last five outings, with three low-scoring draws highlighting their inability to convert chances.
Crystal Palace aren’t exactly in fine fettle themselves and they welcome West Brom to Selhurst Park on Saturday on the back of a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur that included a worrying second-half collapse.
One small crumb of comfort from that game, though, was the return of star man Wilfried Zaha who appeared as a half-time substitute after missing the Eagles’ previous five games and BBC pundit Lawrenson thinks he could be key.
Writing his weekly Premier League predictions on the BBC Sport website, he backs a 2-0 win for the home side.
“Crystal Palace got a bit of a hammering at the hands of Tottenham last weekend but they are still perfectly safe from relegation,” Lawrenson said.
“West Brom are obviously in much deeper trouble. They have picked up a few points in recent weeks by keeping things tight, and I am sure that will be their plan here too – but Wilfried Zaha is back for Palace and he could make the difference.”
Defeat could have catastrophic consequences
Albion need all three points here – nothing else will suffice. A loss would be absolutely terminal to any chances of staying in the Premier League and we would be as good as down.
Like us, Palace have only claimed victory once in their last five and they will be suffering a bout of confidence issues of their own.
We have to take advantage of that and attack with all our might to improve on our woeful goalscoring issues – four blanks in the last six is a disgrace and we have to find a way to past the Palace defence.
While Albion have their own defensive deficiencies the same can certainly be said of Palace and they have their own weak spots that can be exposed.
According to Wyscout the South-London team have conceded nine goals from headers in the Premier League this season – only Leeds United and Sheffield United have shipped more via this route.
With the likes of Kyle Bartley and Mbaye Diagne causing havoc at corners this could be a route to success for Big Sam’s side.
In other West Brom news, our view on Luke Dowling’s transfer business this season.
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