West Brom v Stoke Betting Tips

Peter Crouch’s ‘robot’ celebration emerged again for Stoke as he gave the Potters the lead against Everton, a goal that took his tally to 100 in the Premier League. While they’ll be frustrated that they let Everton back into the game, they’ll feel that tricky outings to Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea in recent rounds have given them the necessary grit to take on West Brom. The last five games between these two at The Hawthorns have been settled by a single goal, so it’s likely to be a tight encounter.

West Brom tend to be very strong at home against middle-third teams in the first half: they’ve gone 14 straight matches without being down at the break, and they’ve only conceded twice in the first half against such opposition during that stretch. Their only loss in their last seven at home against middle-third sides was against Everton early this season, and five of the seven games during that period have gone over 2.5 goals, so we’re likely to see a few goals. Stoke have gone W2-D2-L3 at middle-third sides recently, but they’ve scored in eight straight games against such opposition, so it would be a surprise if we didn’t see them get on the scoresheet.

These are two evenly-matched sides enduring mixed runs of form, and it’s hard to say for sure which way it’ll go. However, since West Brom have conceded in four of their last five and Stoke have a good scoring record against middle-third sides, we’ll back Both to Score.