Chelsea v West Brom - Time for Albion to kick off Great Escape sequel
Albion were closer to the teams above them at this stage of the season in 2005, the year of the famous Great Escape.
After 26 games Bryan Robson’s men were bottom with just 17 points, three fewer than collected so far this season. But they were only two points behind 19th and five points from safety.
After yesterday’s games, Alan Pardew’s side are five points adrift at the bottom and seven points off 17th.
If anything strikes home the gravity of the task at hand in the final 12 games of the season, it should be that.
They travel to Stamford Bridge tonight to face a Chelsea side in chaos after back-to-back defeats and trouble behind closed doors has left Antonio Conte on the brink of an exit.
“There will be a lot of fight on the pitch because two teams are desperate to get points,” said Pardew. “Chelsea need to turn a corner and we need a boost.
"Many times I’ve been to Chelsea, and you can never quite gauge it. Sometimes they’re flying and you perform well there.
“Looking at results just gone it might suggest that we’ll have more chance than we normally would, but we’ll see.”
Back in 2005, it was Kieran Richardson’s loan from Manchester United that gave Robson the boost he needed to keep the Baggies up.
This year, Albion are looking at another loanee from a top-four team to be their knight in shining armour.
Daniel Sturridge showed flashes of potential in the first half-hour last weekend, and returns to his old stomping ground tonight.
“In terms of his character and the way he’s conducted himself since he’s come here, he’s been spot on,” said Pardew. “He’s not tried to big it up or be something that is above us or anything like that.
"He’s come in, dug in, worked as hard as the other guys and I think he knows, more importantly, that he has to score goals for this club.
“That’s where his focus is and that’s where it stays.”
However, there are no guarantees Sturridge will start tonight after Pardew admitted that, in hindsight, it was a mistake to drop an in-form Jay Rodriguez last week.
But he will certainly get an opportunity to prove himself against his former club.
“I need to give him game time to get him up to speed as quickly as I can,” said Albion’s head coach. “However I get it on the pitch, whether it’s at the end of the game, or the start of it.
“Is he up to speed? In the modern era it’s much easier for me to assess that than it was in the past.
“We have heart rate monitors, sports scientists who can test their blood and find exactly where he is. So there’s a few more clues for me.
“He looks pretty good and in training he’s looked well. But you can train as hard as you want. It’s about game time.”
Up front is the only area where Pardew has a conundrum, because Jonny Evans, Kieran Gibbs and Grzegorz Krychowiak will all drop straight back into the starting line-up on their return from injury.
But Rodriguez is on form and Salomon Rondon scored last weekend in a battling performance at the top end of the pitch.
“All three of my strikers are probably going to play in every game but whether they’re all on the pitch at the same time is tactically due a little bit to the opposition,” said Pardew.
Hopefully he gets the chemistry right this time, because the Great Escape sequel needs to get up and running soon if it’s going to be pulled off.
Albion key man - Daniel Sturridge
Whether he starts or not, the Liverpool loanee has been brought in to score goals, and what better place to start than at his old club? Albion will look to him to add that spark in the final third.
Opposition dangerman - Eden Hazard
Amid all the chaos, the Belgian has rediscovered his shooting boots. Hazard has four goals in his last five league matches and, at his best, he’s capable of beating whole teams on his own.
Likely line-ups
Chelsea (3-4-3): Courtois, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Rudiger, Moses, Kante, Fabregas, Alonso, Pedro, Willian, Hazard.
Subs: Caballero, Luiz, Palmeiri, Zappacosta, Drinkwater, Hudson-Odoi, Giroud.
Albion (4-4-2): Foster, Dawson, Evans, Hegazi, Gibbs, Phillips, Barry, Krychowiak, Brunt, Rodriguez, Rondon.
Subs: Myhill, Nyom, McAuley, Yacob, Burke, McClean, Sturridge.
