West Brom vs Southampton Prediction: Baggies can hand Saints another defeat

West Bromwich Albion host Southampton on Friday night (20:00) hoping to solidify their play-off spot after a comfortable home win over Cardiff City in midweek.

Meanwhile, Bristol City stunned Southampton on Tuesday night to end their 25-match unbeaten run in all competitions with a 3-1 win. Having previously not lost in the Championship since September, will Russell Martin’s men bounce back with three points? 

Team News

Having scored off the bench on Tuesday, Andreas Weimann is likely to be restored to the starting XI by Carlos Corberan. With just three days between two fixtures, we could see plenty of changes, with Jed Wallace and Nathaniel Chalobah also in contention. Daryl Dike is out for the season for the hosts after picking up another injury, and Kyle Bartley is also likely to miss this one. 

After suffering their first defeat in four months, it will be interesting to see how Russell Martin reacts. He is unlikely to want to press the panic button at this stage, but Stuart Armstrong could be brought back into the team for this one. Flynn Downes missed the midweek defeat with injury and is unlikely to be fit, while Joe Aribo is back from the AFCON. Che Adams is also expected to be available.  

Match Odds

West Brom are priced at 15/8 to win this one, with Southampton the slight favourites at 13/10. A draw can be backed at 23/10, BTTS is 4/6 and over 2.5 goals is 5/6. 

Under 2.5 goals @ 5/6

This is a really tough game to call. In all honesty, we could see these two sides meet again in the play-offs at the end of the season, as Southampton dropped out of the automatic places with that midweek defeat. Although Saints have been one of the finest attacking teams in the divisions this term, they face another tough away trip, just days after travelling to Bristol. 

That must be taken into account, especially given WBA have had two home games in that same time period. As a result, I believe Southampton will be slightly blunted heading into this one, and their confidence will have taken a slight blow after a rare defeat. The main reason for this pick however is West Brom’s defensive solidity. 

Corberan sets them up in such a way that they are near-impossible to break down, even against the top teams in the Championship. They’ve conceded just 29 goals this term, a total only beaten by the top two, Leicester City and Leeds United. In fact, in their last five league games at the Hawthorns, they’ve conceded just once (against Blackburn Rovers), beating Leeds 1-0 during that impressive run. 

West Brom 1-0 Southampton @ 17/2

You can see where this pick has come from, given the stats I have just put forward. West Brom have the third-best home record in the Championship having won 11 of their 16 matches so far. They lost just twice at home (to Leicester and Huddersfield), and conceded just 11 goals in those 16 encounters on home soil.

They’ve beaten Ipswich and Leeds at home without conceding and so I believe they will be able to hand out a similar punishment to promotion-chasing Southampton. They are stubborn to break down, and even though Saints possess a wealth of talent, I believe Corberan has what it takes to get another big result here. 

West Brom are tricky customers this season. They are now likely to finish in the top six and given their style of play, they will be a team to avoid in the play-offs. This could be a statement win for the Baggies.  

Check out our other Football Betting Tips here.