Football – England – Premier League
Saturday 5th April 2014 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
It’s another lower half clash in the Premier League next as hosts Norwich City take on West Brom at Carrow Road on Saturday afternoon with a very precious three points up for grabs with the winner moving out of immediate relegation danger.
However, league wins have been hard to come by for both sides recently and starting with Norwich City, they’ve won just twice in their last ten matches overall which were home wins over Tottenham 1-0 and 2-0 over Sunderland. Despite suffering five defeats during this period (which, incidentally, were all away from home), Norwich have also held Newcastle United, Manchester City and Stoke City all to single points on home turf which should set them up nicely for this afternoon.
Indeed, Norwich City actually possess the best home record in the bottom half of the Premier League with overall stats of 6-6-4 15/12 and The Canaries are unbeaten in their last six which also includes a 1-0 win over Hull City, racking up no fewer than five clean sheets in the process.
Visitors West Brom shared the points with Cardiff City in an entertaining 3-3 draw last Saturday at The Hawthorns but despite giving both sets of fans their money’s worth, both teams were still left in danger of relegation.
West Brom are just one place and three points above Cardiff City and they face a trip to Norwich City where they will fancy their chances of getting perhaps a point against a team that are in the same half of the table as them. However, there is a crucial difference – Norwich have home advantage while West Brom have won just once in their last twelve away trips which was a 2-1 win at Swansea City.
Overall though, The Baggies possess an away record of 2-6-7 17/26 and they’ve kept just two clean sheets away from home all season which has been a major contributing factor to their current predicament.
I daresay Pepe Mel would be reasonably happy with a point at Norwich while The Canaries possess a good home record considering their league position, so I reckon a hit on the round ball on City is a good shout here – prepare for a low-scoring match, but Norwich might edge this one 1-0.
Pick: Norwich City AH0 @ 1.70 Pinnacle
