After a rocky start, West Brom seem to have come to terms with life in the Championship and are now steadily moving up the table.
Darren Moore’s side have now won three on the bounce, including a very impressive 4-1 win over Leeds, and now look like real promotion contenders.
West Brom to win @ 5/6
Middlesbrough’s defeat by Aston Villa at the weekend means that West Brom can move into the top three with a win tonight and continue their recent progress up the Championship table. So, there are plenty of incentives for the Baggies to be right at it.
Brentford, on the other hand, have lost three on the bounce and have been in freefall. The Bees have lost five of their last six games, winning just once in their last 12.
The Bees’ form has seen them plummet down the Championship table, but still only three points separate them from the drop zone. A home win seems like a formality, but of course this is the Championship and formalities don’t exist.
But still, West Brom should win.
Both teams to score @ 1/2
Despite West Brom’s return to form, they simply cannot keep a clean sheet. The Baggies have kept just one clean sheet in 19 Championship games and considering all six of West Brom’s Premier League wins last season were accompanied by a clean sheet, their porous defence is all the more surprising.
The Baggies have the worst defensive record in the top eight of the Championship but, with 41 goals, are also the top scorers in the division. Such statistics are in stark contrast with the usual notion surrounding West Brom teams and goals are virtually a guarantee in any West Brom game this season.
Brentford have also been free scoring, despite their perilous form, and have only drawn a blank three times in 19 games in the league. The Bees have found the net 30 times this season and only Preston have scored more in the bottom half of the table.
Their impressive attacking record, coupled with Albion’s leaky defence, suggests that both sides will get score on Monday.
Neal Maupay to score anytime @ 7/5
Backing a player on what we feel will be the losing team represents a slight risk but, as it is likely both teams will find the net, Neal Maupay looks the most likely to get himself on the scoresheet.
The Baggies are hard to predict, with goals coming from all over the pitch. Club top scorer Dwight Gayle has only scored one goal in his last seven games and currently finds himself left out of the Albion starting XI.
West Brom’s goals have been largely spread out between the likes of Jay Rodriguez, Harvey Barnes and Hal Robson Kanu, while centre backs Ahmed Hegazi and Craig Dawson provided the goals in the mid-week win over Swansea.
It is, therefore, very difficult to pick out one player who will score for West Brom on Monday. Brentford, however, are slightly easier to predict with Maupay contributing a huge portion of their goals this season.
Maupuy topped the goalscoring charts at the start of the weekend, only for Nottingham Forest’s Lewis Grabban to score a brace and overtake him.
The Frenchman has been in red-hot form this season, scoring 13 of Brentford’s 30 goals.
Maupay found the back of the net in two of Brentford’s last three defeats and is good value to do so again.
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