West Bromwich Albion will be looking to give their Premier League survival hopes a boost when they welcome Southampton to the Hawthorns on Monday evening.
The Baggies, who thumped Chelsea last weekend, are currently 19th in the table, eight points behind 17th-placed Newcastle United, while Southampton occupy 14th position, 10 points clear of the bottom three.
Match preview
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West Brom face an uphill task as they battle to stay in the Premier League, with the Baggies, as mentioned, currently eight points behind 17th-placed Newcastle on the same number of matches.
There is no getting away from the fact that it has been a disappointing campaign for the club, who will be dropping back down into the Championship unless there is a huge turnaround in the coming weeks.
Sam Allardyce's side should be full of confidence entering the clash with the Saints, though, following their outstanding performance against Chelsea last weekend; the Blues were forced to play with 10 men for long stages of the contest, but an excellent display from West Brom saw them run out 5-2 winners.
Matheus Pereira and Callum Robinson both netted twice for the Baggies, while Mbaye Diagne was also on the scoresheet, as the strugglers put in easily their best performance of the 2020-21 campaign.
Allardyce's team will believe that they can still escape the bottom three, especially if they can secure all three points on Monday, but West Brom have struggled at the Hawthorns this term, picking up just 11 points from 15 matches, recording only two victories in the process.
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Southampton, meanwhile, were in and around the European spots in the first half of the season, but the Saints have struggled for consistency since the turn of the year.
Ralph Hasenhuttl's side are now 14th in the table, 10 points clear of the relegation zone, meaning that only an incredible turn of events would see them pulled into any sort of danger over the next couple of months.
Southampton are now six points behind 11th-placed Leeds United, though, and it would not be a surprise if they finished in their current position, which would have to go down as a huge disappointment.
The Saints have won their last two matches, beating Bournemouth in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on March 20 before recording a 3-2 home victory over Burnley in the Premier League last weekend.
Hasenhuttl's team have struggled on their travels this term, though, with only four Premier League teams performing worse away from home during the 2020-21 campaign.
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Team News
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West Brom will be without the services of Branislav Ivanovic due to a hamstring problem, but Allardyce is hopeful that Dara O'Shea will shake off an ankle injury to feature in the middle of the defence.
Conor Gallagher missed out against Chelsea last weekend as he was not eligible against his parent club, but the midfielder is expected to return to the starting XI on Monday.
There could also be a start in an attacking position for Robinson, who came off the bench to score twice against the Blues last weekend, with Matt Phillips and Okay Yokuslu potentially dropping out of the XI.
As for Southampton, Michael Obafemi, Oriol Romeu and William Smallbone are still unavailable for selection, but Kyle Walker-Peters should overcome a leg problem to feature at right-back.
On-loan Liverpool attacker Takumi Minamino is an option to come into a wide position, but Hasenhuttl is expected to keep faith with the side that took to the field against Burnley last weekend.
As a result, Nathan Redmond, who scored the winner against the Clarets, should join Danny Ings as part of a front two, leaving Che Adams on the bench.
West Bromwich Albion possible starting lineup:
Johnstone; O'Shea, Bartley, Ajayi; Furlong, Gallagher, Maitland-Niles, Townsend; Robinson, Diagne, Pereira
Southampton possible starting lineup:
Forster; Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Bertrand; Armstrong, Diallo, Ward-Prowse, Walcott; Redmond, Ings
We say: West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Southampton
Only wins will do for West Brom at this stage of the season, and the Baggies should be full of confidence following an excellent performance against Chelsea. Southampton are more than capable of picking up all three points at the Hawthorns, but we just fancy the home side to edge a tight contest on Monday.
Top tip
Video prediction
Watch the Sports Mole Football Shorts prediction for this game below:
Matt Law
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Southampton win with a probability of 51.69%. A draw had a probability of 26.1% and a win for West Bromwich Albion had a probability of 22.17%.
The most likely scoreline for a Southampton win was 0-1 with a probability of 13.83%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (10.37%) and 1-2 (9.17%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.22%), while for a West Bromwich Albion win it was 1-0 (8.15%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with a 1.1% likelihood.
