A mouth-watering Championship clash sees the league leaders West Bromwich Albion attempt to make it thirteen games unbeaten against a Brentford side chasing their third straight win.

With the halfway point of the Championship season approaching, it’s fair to say West Bromwich Albion are enjoying life under the management of Slaven Bilic.  

The Baggies lead the division, sit comfortably twelve points clear of third place, and are odds on favourites to be turning out in the Premier League next season.

Saturday’s opposition is Thomas Frank’s Brentford side who, after an inconsistent start, are beginning to find their feet in the promotion battle.

Pre-season, many tipped Brentford as potential ‘dark horses’ for the automatic spots and as things stand the London club are doing little to contest these claims.

Current Form

With just one loss this season, that coming away to second place Leeds United, West Brom are by far the divisions form side.

Last time out they came from behind twice to defeat Midlands rivals Birmingham City after super sub-Charlie Austin bagged a brace to save all three points.

The victory at St Andrew's returned the Baggies to winning ways after a disappointing midweek draw away to Wigan Athletic. Previously they had won six games on the bounce, including convincing victories against play-off hopefuls Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday.

The bookies and fans alike expect West Brom to return to the topflight next year and with unwavering winning form coupled with the inconsistencies of clubs around them it’s hard to see how Slaven Bilic’s men won’t be celebrating come May.

Brentford travel to the Hawthorns in good spirits as they picked up all three points last time out at home to Fulham.

Bryan Mbeumo scored the only goal of the game at Griffin Park as the Bees made it back to back wins and moved up to fourth in the table.

Whilst Brentford’s league position is beginning to reflect pre-season expectations, Thomas Frank’s side have endured an unpredictable start to the season.

The London club have lost eight of there twenty-two games this season, the joint-most in the top half of the table. On the other hand, their record of eleven wins is the joint second-best in the division.

Their constant fluctuation between winning or losing means they have failed to go more than three games unbeaten all season. A win, or draw, against West Brom on Saturday will match this feat, with Bees fans hoping their side can kick on and challenge the top two.

What to Expect

With both sides opting to keep hold of the ball, it will be a tight contest of who can control the game.

Over the course of the season, the two sides are matched equally in possession, with 55%. In addition, the sides are ranked third and fifth for the shortest passes per game.

This highlights the tendency to keep hold of the ball and remain patient rather than rush into attacks.

The sides are also level with shots per game, averaging fourteen shots per fixture.

This demonstrates both teams offer a potent attack, however, West Brom are more likely to take their chances. The Baggies have scored forty-five this season, ten more than anyone else in the division and twelve more than this weekends opposition.

Whilst the home side edges the offensive statistics, Brentford are more solid at the back. With just seventeen conceded, the Bees rank as the second-best defence in the league, which is reinforced as they face the least shots per game in the entire division.

Star Men

With two similar styles on display, it's likely the two sides will cancel each other out, leaving individual performances at the forefront of the fixture.

West Brom are a danger all over the pitch; their forty-five goals this season come spread across fourteen different scorers.

However, Bilic’s side perform at their maximum when creative midfielder Matheus Pereira is on form. The Brazilian has five goals to his name this season and is quickly earning a reputation in the second tier.

Currently on loan from Portuguese side Sporting CP, yet with a deal in place for a permanent transfer, the 23-year-old leads the league with ten assits and has terrorised Championship defences on a regular basis.

If Brentford can stop Pereira playing, they have a good chance of picking up points on Saturday.

The Bees have their own danger man in Algerian Said Benrahma. Whilst Ollie Watkins performances and goals up top have been crucial for Brentford, the creativity of Benrahma is sorely missed when out the side.

Benrahma’s debut season of Championship football saw him grab ten goals and fourteen assists last year and after a worrying start, the winger is beginning to show signs of replicating that feat in 2019/20.

With three goals and five assists after fifteen starts this campaign, Benrahma is starting to hit similar form to last year’s outstanding performances.

In a similar manner to Pereira, Benrahma is Brentford’s creative output and if the Baggies can tame their danger man it will be tough for Brentford to find a way past the league leaders.

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