David Prutton predicts exciting stalemate in West Brom clash v Bournemouth
Sky Sports’ David Prutton has predicted an exciting 2-2 draw in the Championship opening gameweek affair between West Brom and Bournemouth.
The two sides go into the new campaign as the favourites to secure promotion.
Bournemouth were relegated from the Premier League in the 2019/20 season and lost the play-off semi-finals last season while West Brom dropped down from the top flight last season.
Both sides have appointed new managers this summer in Valerien Ismael and Scott Parker, and Prutton expects them to share the spoils.
In his Sky Sports column, he wrote, “Bournemouth and West Brom are right among the favourites and both will be desperate to lay down a marker on the first night at the Vitality.
“Two new managers but also two familiar faces will be in the dugout, and it will be interesting to see what Scott Parker and Valerien Ismael have done with their sides in pre-season.
“I can see both having a go, a few goals, and ultimately an entertaining draw to kick us off.”
Fancy our chances
We’ve looked in good touch during pre season and defensively we’ve seemed much more organised than we were in the league last season.
There’s no doubt that the quality of opposition we faced was not at the level of some of the teams we’ll face this season, but it’s a decent indicator of how things are shaping up and we’ve looked pretty solid.
Ismael has done a fairly good job with getting most players onside and obviously showing players like Matheus Pereira that he will not be bullied into their whims.
We’re expecting the Baggies to approach this game on the front foot and pressing Bournemouth high up the pitch.
Last season, Parker’s Fulham side played very compact shape, but they could look to play more on the foot this season.
All in all, we cannot wait for the action to begin.
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