Party time to pressure – West Brom v Tottenham preview

It feels like it was only five minutes ago Slaven Bilic and Albion were celebrating promotion to the Premier League.

After just seven top flight games, however, the Croatian is entering this clash against Tottenham with speculation mounting over his future.

Lee Bowyer and Sam Allardyce are two of the names that have already been linked with the top job at The Hawthorns should Bilic soon depart.

It has been suggested defeat tomorrow could spell the end for the 52-year-old with tensions between him and the club’s board having been strained for a while.

It is understood the boss was disappointed when told the club only had roughly £20million to spend this summer.

He is also believed to have grown frustrated with the amount of time to it took to strike deals for midfielder Filip Krovinovic and forward Karlan Grant.

While the recent departure of Ahmed Hegazi also riled Bilic – with the head coach airing those views publicly.

But while Bilic has his frustrations, so to do the board with Albion having failed to win any of their last 11 league games – a run stretching back to last season.

In fact, the Baggies have only tasted victory eight times in their last 31 league games.

Tension is simmering from both sides.

And that is incredibly sad when you consider the wonderful job Bilic did at The Hawthorns last season – with his team playing some breathtaking football at times. Thankfully, things are not at boiling point just yet.

And maybe, just maybe, the Baggies can surprise Tottenham tomorrow and get a result that lifts the mood.

Rifts happen quickly in football – but with positive results they can also heal quickly too.

But how does Bilic stop a Tottenham side with a world class strikeforce of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Gareth Bale.

In the first three games of this season, Bilic lined up his side in a 3-4-3 formation that become a compact 5-4-1 without the ball.

That is the system that got the Baggies to within 30 seconds of beating Chelsea. It relies on playing on the counter-attack and taking your chances when they come. It also relies on getting a bit of luck – something all Premier League sides need when they take on one of the big boys.

But Albion – as they showed against Chelsea – do have the character and personnel to pull it off. And that was Bilic’s message in a fiery and passionate pre-match press conference.

Speaking to the media, the head coach made the point Albion are only in the relegation zone by a point.

He also pointed out a host of teams are battling to avoid the drop.

And he is adamant his side can get out of it.

“We were closest to winning the game that is the toughest of paper – Chelsea,” Bilic said. “Every game gives us an opportunity.

“Did Sheffield United win? Did Burnley win? No.

“At the moment you have four or five teams in that mini-league. Hopefully there are going to be more.

“Are we in a fight? Yes we are.

“What did everyone predict? That we are going to be rock bottom. Rock bottom.

“Are we rock bottom? No. We are in the relegation zone by one point. Am I happy about that? No.

“But are we going to panic and lose confidence and lose belief? No.

“We are down there but we don’t need to get six points from the next two games to get out it.

“What we need is to build on the performances against Burnley and Brighton.

“Then the better we play, the more chance we have of getting results. Is it hard? It’s damn hard. But we can do it.”