The 8pm UK kickoff time fixture on Monday Night Football in the English Championship sees London based Brentford head to the Hawthorns to face West Bromich Albion for the 20th game in the league for both sides. West Brom are looking for another victory to extend a 3-game winning streak that has seen victories away at Swansea and Ipswich and a home win over Leeds. Thomas Frank’s Brentford are the opposite of West Brom as they have no wins in the last 3 games.
Darren Moore and his troops have their sights firmly fixed on an immediate return to the Premier League after a lack luster campaign in the Premier League last term saw them finish last on the table. The Baggies did undergo a mini revival of sorts in the closing weeks of the season under the leadership of Daren Moore but it was too late to have a major impact on their destiny.
West Brom have had a very solid start to the season until they hit a rough patch in late October through to early November where they lost 3 games in 4 to Wigan, Derby and Hull, only getting a draw at home to Blackburn. Since that 0-1 loss to Hull in early November, the Baggies have followed up with 3 quick victories to rise up to 4th, 6 points behind league leaders Norwich and with a game in hand. If they beat Brentford, they will move up to 3rd just three points behind the Canaries and 2 points outside automatic qualification places.
West Brom are an efficient team at home having picked up 8 wins out of 11 games at home in all competitions after the opening day 1-2 loss to Bolton Wanderers at the Hawthorns.
Brentford are in disarray are in a poor run of form. The club’s erstwhile manager Dean Smith left to join Aston Villa in October. His assistant, Thomas Frank replaced him and has only won one game and lost the other 6 under his guidance. The Bees only have one win in the last 13 in all competitions and have dropped to 18th in league, just 4 points above the bottom three and in real danger of being relegated if things don’t improve.
Brentford’s only win this season was a 4-2 win over League One side Southend United in a first round Carabao Cup tie in August. They have only taken 1 point out of the last 18 on their travels and are one of only 3 teams yet to win away in the Championship this season. The Bees are yet to keep a clean sheet in the last 9 and have also failed to win on any of their 9 trips to the Hawthorns in all competitions.
Team News
Julian Jeanvier is out for Brentford due to a foot injury while it’s also unlikely that Ollie Watkins, Kamohelo Mokotjo, Marcus Forss and Said Benrahma will feature. Mokotjo and Benrahma are both dealing with ankle injuries while Forss picked up a knock recently.
West Brom will be missing the services of defender Kyle Bartley while Dwight Gayle on loan from Newcastle is pushing for a recall in place of Robson Hal-Kanu. Gayle and Jay Rodriguez both have 9 goals and lead the goal scoring chart for the Baggies.
Verdict
West Brom have one of the best home records in the league this season while Brentford have failed to win away from home since the April 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest last season. Anything but a West Brom win on Monday will be considered a huge upset.
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