English Premier
2011-11-19 - West Brom vs Bolton Wanderers
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 19 November 2011 - Kick Off 3pm
West Brom
West Brom have not shown the consistency the fans would have wanted from their opening 11 games of the season, the biggest problem being a lack of goals. The Baggies have scored just 9 goals all season, with only Wigan scoring less goals, and a injury to Shane Long must be troubling Roy Hodgson even more as he looks to find a way for his team to get scoring.
The team are sitting down in 14th place in the Premier League, having gained just 11 points so far. They have lost more than half of the games they have played and are only 2 points clear of their opponents who are in the relegation zone. West Brom are 1-1-3 at the Hawthornes this season, scoring 3 goals and conceding 5, making them the lowest scorers at home in the League so far.
The Baggies went into the international break having lost back to back games in the League against Liverpool and Arsenal and failing to score in either of those games. West Brom have failed to score in 3 of their last 4 games at home, the other resulting in a 2-0 win over Wolves.
Peter Odemwingie is a major doubt for Hodgson, which will be a concern as Shane Long is not due back until the end of the month. Paul Scharner was supposed to return to fitness this week, but is yet to return to training.
Bolton Wanderers
Owen Coyle has had a really tough start to the new season as his Bolton side were struggling defensively and losing games heavily. The former Burnley manager must be hoping his side have turned a corner as they thrashed Stoke City 5-0 at home in the final game before the latest international break.
Bolton moved up to 18th after the big win over Stoke, improving their points tally to 9 points which puts them in touching distance of the sides outside of the relegation zone. They have at least been better away from home than at the Reebok Stadium, compiling a 2-0-3 record having scored 9 goals but also conceded 10. Only 4 teams have scored more away goals than Bolton so far this season.
The Trotters had lost 3 games in a row in all competitions before the win against Stoke, and there had to have been some worried supporters after defeats to Sunderland at home and Swansea away in the League. How about this for a statistic- Bolton have only drawn 1 of their last 23 away games in all competitions.
Dedryck Boyata, Sam Ricketts, Marcos Alonso and Ricardo Gardner will all be missing for Bolton in this game. It would be surprising if there were too many changes from the side that beat Stoke last time out.
Head to Head
Bolton beat West Brom when they last met in December by 2-0 at home, but that was only the 3rd game in the last 10 meetings between the teams that had been settled with a winner.
The last 3 games at the Hawthornes have all ended in draws, with 5 of the last 6 finishing with the points shared.
Prediction
This is a hard game to read into as both sides have been struggling this season and neither is reliable enough to back them to win this game.
West Brom's lack of goals have been hurting their chances this season, while Bolton concede too many goals to really rely on them to do enough to win the game.
I am going to back both sides to end up cancelling each other out and accepting a point each- the recent head to head shows how closely the teams are matched and we could see yet another draw between the teams.
Bolton have a really long run where they avoided draws in away games, but both teams look very closely matched and I can imagine both managers would probably accept a draw as a point gained rather than 2 dropped.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
West Brom 1-1 Bolton Wanderers
