20th Feb 2013 | Football
West Brom Ride Their Luckaku
We take a statistical approach to the Premier League; it suggests West Brom’s victory at Anfield was an aberrationon an otherwise downwards trend.
Using ‘shots on target’ rather than goals as our key metric, we analyse recent Premier League fixtures to see if the scorelines were a fair reflection of the game.
9 February 2013
Source: whoscored.com
Negative numbers = away team supremacy
West Brom Ride Their Luckaku
After five defeats in six league games, West Brom’s win over Liverpool came at exactly the right time but it shouldn’t disguise the fact they are a team on the slide.
Liverpool dominated the game with 25 shots, 7 on target and almost certainly would have won if Steven Gerrard had converted his penalty.
West Brom also have Ben Foster to thank, the former England stopper produced one of the goalkeeping performances of the season. His seven saves, including the penalty, earned him a rating of 9.7 from whoscored.com, comfortably his best of the season.
Alternative Form Table
It may have been a famous victory for Steve Clarke’s men but from a punting perspective it isn’t one to get carried away with. Statistically West Brom haven’t played well enough to win any of their last eight games and have over-achieved by four points.
On Saturday, they host Sunderland who have undergone a mini revival of late. At 3/1 (Bet365) the Black Cats could bring West Brom back down to earth.
Odds correct at time of publishing: 17:24 20th Feb, 2013 but subject to change
