Cue them somehow getting a clean sheet.

Remember how Sunderland were on a 5 game losing streak before playing us?

Haven't they been on a decent run of form in the past few weeks? I only say this because I've been keeping an eye on them since Vela joined.

General Mirth wrote:

Haven't they been on a decent run of form in the past few weeks? I only say this because I've been keeping an eye on them since Vela joined.

Yes they've won their last game and have drawn the three previous to that.

Vela has scored some important goals for them but they will be without him for this.

Also, they've only managed one clean sheet at home in the league this season.

Should be a surefire victory provided we can keep them down to fewer than two shots on target then.

Burnwinter wrote:

Should be a surefire victory provided we can keep them down to fewer than two shots on target then.

It's so sad that every year at this time, the words "should be" just don't seem to hold the same weight.

Hence the gloomy joke. Remember that "50% of all shots on target are goals" stat of Almunia's from last year?

In the words of a random boxing coach i saw on channel 5 . " ABUSE HIM ABUUUUSE HIM"

I suppose Al will definitely be in goal for this?
There will be no shock Lehmann selection?

hope for the best expect the worst.

Jens, at about 59 years of age now, not having played for a long time is hardly an upgrade on even Average Al.

I have a really bad feeling about this game. West Brom need every point they can get, and they'll be able to smell the fear in our boys. I see another loss

IBL wrote:

They'll win because we cant keep a clean sheet to save our lives

Fixed.

Caligula wrote:

I have a really bad feeling about this game. West Brom need every point they can get, and they'll be able to smell the fear in our boys.

What are they, a pack of wolves?

...

played against wolves twice and won anyway.

Nah, we just smell bad :-)

Biggus wrote:

IBL wrote:

They'll win because we cant keep a clean sheet to save our lives

Fixed.

We've kept 7 in our last 10 games in the league actually.

Almunia wasn't in goal though.

Good point

I put some CB stats for the season together and the Koscielny/Squillaci pairing concedes a goal every 83 minutes or so on average. Djourou/Squillaci every 270 minutes and Djourou/Koscielny every 400 minutes.

I'm afraid it looks like we're going to ship a lot of goals in the next 10 games.

Pepe, thanks so much for putting up those stats. Obviously, they lack depth in terms of who else is playing and who we are playing against, but they really do point to problems when Djourou is down.