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WBA on the rise, Watford drifting

WB overcame the crisis with seven points from the last three matches, while Watford's manager Mazzerri experiments too much and his team's game oscillates all the time

Newcastle United

West Bromwich Albion won lovely seven points in the last three rounds, they're out of the crisis and they're heading towards safer waters. They're currently ninth. It won't be easy to keep that place, but for WBA the most important thing is to be far away from the danger zone.

The same goes for their opponents in this round, Watford, and since their game style is similar, and they both struggle with creativity and creating chances, this duel will be a match between equals.

The hosts will try to go for a win, but the away team's strong block probably won't be easy to pierce.

- The shape of the hosts is vital for a good final success, and I'll ask my players to show everything they have today - said WBA's manager Tony Pulis, and the biggest question is their best scorer Rondon who had health issues and whether he'll play will be known right before the match.

His potential substitute is Berahino who is not fully ready, and the question is who will be at the top of the offense. The good thing is that offensive midfielder Chadli recovered. He gave a new dimension to WBA and recorded four goals already.

- Watford have an Italian manager, which suggests he's very tough and very well-organized. We respect the away team like they were Chelsea or Arsenal, but that doesn't mean we don't want to beat them - said Pulis. In the last eight league matches at home against Watford, WBA were beaten only once, and four times they recorded all three points.

In the last four rounds Watford were going up and down, and they didn't do good at home last Saturday against Stoke. They lost 0-1 thanks to their own goal.

The Italian manager Walter Mazzarri couldn't be pleased with anything in that duel, and sometimes his experiments with line-ups and systems seem overboard and inefficient.

Watford were almost harmless against Stoke, and they made a lot of errors, and Mazzarri had a lot of things to work on through the week in order to make the game against WBA function as best as it can. We'll see how well they did today.

- In the future we should avoid ups and downs which keep happening, and so far we were known to record a win after a loss, which would be a very good thing to repeat today - said Mazzarri. Today he'll be up for a lot of forced changes because he has five injured players, and two important first-team players, stopper Britos and midfielder Mehrami, were booked.

Ighalo will probably play from the first minute at the top, together with Deeney. In the last six rounds, however, they didn't record a goal.

- We know how firm WBA can play and no opponents have an easy time recording goals against them. But once you crack their defense, they're a lot more vulnerable and we'll try to achieve such a plan - said Mazzarri. The data say that his team are the roughest in the league because they recorded 33 yellow cards so far. Seven conceded goals after corner shots also don't sound good, especially when we know how dangerous WBA are from free kicks.