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      MATCH PREVIEW

WEST BROMWICH ALBION v CHELSEA
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 17th November 2012, 3pm
The Hawthorns

MATCH NOTES

Albion and Chelsea have met on this date once before - A First Division match back in 1984, Chelsea winning 3-1 at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea have gone three league matches without a win - their worst sequence under Roberto Di Matteo. They had previously taken 22 points from the opening eight games.

Albion have not recorded back-to-back victories over Chelsea since 1979.

The Baggies’ tally of 20 points is the most the club have had at this stage of a top-flight season for 30 years.

If midfielder Chris Brunt plays a part in the game he will equal the record of most Premier League appearances made by an Albion player. The record is currently 106, held by former captain Jonathan Greening.

Albion have lost more games (11) and conceded more goals (31) against Chelsea than any other club in Premier League competition.

Albion's last six games: W W L L W D

Chelsea's last six games: D D L W W W

TEAM NEWS

Albion

Goalkeeper Boaz Myhill will again deputise for Ben Foster, who is recovering from groin surgery whilst Gareth McAuley and Youssouf Mulumbu will face late fitness tests due to hamstring problems.

On-loan Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku is ineligible to face his parent club.

Steven Reid and Jerome Thomas are unlikely to figure despite both returning to training.

Squad from: Myhill, Daniels, Jones, McAuley, Olsson, Tamas, Dawson, Jara Reyes, Popov, Ridgewell, Mulumbu, Yacob, Brunt, Dorrans, Morrison, El Ghanassy, Gera, Fortune, Odemwingie, Long, Rosenberg.

Chelsea

England defender Ashley Cole could return for Chelsea following a hamstring injury but John Terry (knee) and Frank Lampard (calf) are out.

Boss Roberto Di Matteo will assess those in his squad who played for their countries in midweek, the likes of David Luiz, Mata, Oscar and Hazard.

Squad from: Cech, Ivanovic, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill, Cole, Bertrand, Mikel, Romeu, Ramires, Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Moses, Marin, Torres, Sturridge, Turnbull.

QUOTES

Baggies' boss Steve Clarke:

"It would be wrong to say it is just another game because I had a great association with Chelsea. Nobody can take that away from me. It was good times. But I've moved on and I have to do the job now for Albion.

"I could probably still have been at Chelsea now if I'd chosen to take that path. I decided to take away the safety net to challenge myself and push myself. It's a decision I made a number of years ago and I'm comfortable with that decision."

"This game is a good benchmark for us. It's not dissimilar to when Manchester City came a couple of weeks ago and we wanted to challenge ourselves against them. We lost the game but we came out of the game with a higher self-esteem, if you like, because we knew we'd given them a really tough game.

"We'll aim to do that again against Chelsea on Saturday - but this time we're looking for a positive result."

www.sportinglife.com

Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo:

"Look at where I'm sitting now, so I'm not so sure it was a bad thing. That's football. That's life.

“In a manager's career, you're going to get the sack at some point if you have a long career. It's happened to everybody in the industry, and it makes you stronger. It doesn't mean you're not a good coach or a good manager.

“There are many examples of good managers where it didn't work out with a club. They were successful before and were again after.

“No grudges, no. Not at all. I had a great time. I worked with a lot of good people there. The supporters were very kind to me as well. I had almost two years there.

“Despite the fact that last season's game was not a good memory, because we lost, I can reflect on good memories there.”

www.dailymail.co.uk

MATCH ODDS

Result

Albion Win: 14/5, Chelsea Win: 10/11, Draw: 13/5.

First Goalscorer

Torres 5/1, Sturridge 6/1, Long 7/1, Mata 7/1, Odemwingie 8/1, Hazard 8/1, Lampard 8/1, Moses 8/1, Oscar 8/1, Fortune 9/1, Rosenberg 9/1, Morrison 12/1, Brunt 14/1, Dorrans 14/1, Gera 14/1, Thomas 14/1, Marin 14/1, El Ghanassy 16/1, Ramires 16/1, Mulumbu 20/1, Cahill 20/1.

REFEREE

Michael Oliver (Northumberland) - Last took charge of an Albion game in September when the Baggies were knocked out of the Capital One Cup by Liverpool at The Hawthorns. Also refereed three Albion games last season - The 3-0 defeat at Arsenal in November, the 2-1 defeat at home to Norwich City in the FA Cup in January, and the 1-1 draw at Wigan Athletic in March.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets for the game will remain on general sale to home fans only until the 3pm kick-off. The Smethwick End is sold out and there are only a limited number of seats left in the East Stand. Tickets are still available for both the Birmingham Road End and West Stand.

WEATHER FORECAST

Partly cloudy but dry, 7°C

FIXTURE HISTORY

The first ever league meeting of the two clubs came at Stamford Bridge in September 1905, just months after the London club had been formed. Albion lost that initial Division Two game 1-0 with Bob McRoberts scoring for the home side. The return game at The Hawthorns in January ended in a 1-1 draw, Jack Manners the Albion scorer.

Albion's best league victory over the Londoners is 5-2, a score achieved twice - away at Stamford Bridge in April 1929 when Tommy Glidden hit a hat-trick, and at The Hawthorns in October 1953 when the late, great Ronnie Allen notched a treble. Allen had a fantastic scoring record against the Blues, hitting 14 goals in 19 league games between the sides.

The Baggies also registered a 8-1 win in October 1945 at The Hawthorns in a Football League South meeting, Ike Clarke scoring four of the goals The game came just a week after the two clubs had shared 11 goals at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea coming out on top in that one 7-4.

Chelsea's best victory over Albion came at Stamford Bridge in December 1960 when five goals from the legendary Jimmy Greaves helped the Blues to a easy 7-1 victory.

Albion have an awful recent history against Chelsea, winning just one of the last 21 games. Before that solitary victory, which came at The Hawthorns in March of this year, Albion had lost 13 games in a row against the Blues in all competitions.

Albion's last victory at Stamford Bridge came in November 1983 when Ron Wylie's men beat the Londoners 1-0 in a League Cup 3rd round match whilst the last league victory in West London came in September 1978, Albion running out 3-1 winners thanks to goals from Cyrille Regis, John Wile and Tony Brown.

LAST LEAGUE MEETING AT THE HAWTHORNS

Albion 1-0 Chelsea
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 3 March 2012, 3:00pm

Albion: Foster, Reid (Tamas 57), McAuley, Olsson, Ridgewell, Andrews, Mulumbu, Morrison, Odemwingie, Fortune (Long 84), Thomas (Brunt 64). Subs not used: Fulop, Dorrans, Shorey, Cox.

Goalscorer: McAuley 82

Booked: Ridgewell 65 (foul), Andrews 79 (foul), Brunt 94 (foul)

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic (Meireles 84), Luiz, Cahill, Cole, Ramires, Essien (Torres 76), Lampard, Sturridge (Malouda 63), Drogba, Mata. Subs not used: Turnbull, Romeu, Mikel, Hutchinson.

Booked: Cole 85 (foul)

Attendance: 24,838

Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire)

West Brom defender Gareth McAuley increased the pressure on Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas with a late winner in the Barclays Premier League clash at The Hawthorns. McAuley struck eight minutes from time to earn Albion their first ever Premier League win over the Blues whom they had not beaten at any level since 1979.

It leaves Chelsea three points adrift of Arsenal, winners at Liverpool earlier in the day, in the battle for a Champions League spot. They were matched for long periods by Roy Hodgson's side who looked full of confidence after back-to-back wins before McAuley's crucial intervention. Petr Cech was called into action more often than Albion counterpart Ben Foster as the home side looked full of creativity. Marc-Antoine Fortune again impressed in the lone striker's role while Youssouf Mulumbu and James Morrison shone in midfield.

Chelsea had looked sharp in the opening 45 minutes but were poor after the interval and were made to pay for poor finishing by Daniel Sturridge. Peter Odemwingie, presented with the Premier League player of the month award for February before the game, had a glancing header blocked from a James Morrison free-kick. Then Chelsea keeper Cech then had to be alert to finger-tip a fierce Morrison drive over the bar. Chelsea threatened for the first time when Sturridge seized onto a casual pass from Jonas Olsson and squared the ball across the Baggies box. But Juan Mata failed to make proper contact on his attempted volley. Mata did hit the target from a narrow angle after some neat one-touch football. But Foster was alert to the situation and blocked his shot at the expense of a corner. Ridgewell came to Albion's rescue when he blocked a goalbound attempt from Gary Cahill after a corner from Frank Lampard had dropped invitingly into his path 15 yards out. Foster showed his class seven minutes before the interval when he leapt acrobatically to turn aside a fierce Michael Essien effort. The former England keeper reacted quickly to snatch the loose ball before Didier Drogba could take advantage. Sturridge should have broken the deadlock after 40 minutes after a superb pass from Drogba created the opening. But the striker screwed his attempt wide of the right hand post after having time to line up his shot. Albion ended the first half with a flourish as Cahill deflected a Mulumbu shot just past the far post.

Sturridge missed another great chance to put the Blues in front after 55 minutes. He ran onto a pass from Mata but then lacked the belief and confidence to take the ball around Foster who had raced out of his area. Albion were forced into a change after 55 minutes when Steven Reid limped out of the action to be replaced by Gabriel Tamas. The home side came back into the game and David Luiz did well to dispossess Odemwingie after he had taken a pass from Fortune in his stride. Cech then beat out a fierce rising shot from Fortune. Ridgewell became the first player to be yellow carded after 65 minutes for a challenge on Ramires. Albion enjoyed a purple patch and came close on three occasions to scoring in the space of five minutes. Cech turned over a fierce drive from the impressive Mulumbu and also reacted sharply to block a low shot on the turn from Fortune. Then it needed a last ditch challenge from Ashley Cole to deny Chris Brunt as he closed in on a Ridgewell centre. Fernando Torres replaced Essien after 76 minutes and within three minutes Keith Andrews had been booked for chopping down the striker. But after 82 minutes McAuley put Albion ahead. Ridgewell drove Andrews' chip across the area and McAuley diverted the ball past Cech. Cole was booked for fouling Albion substitute Shane Long who had replaced Fortune.

Sporting Life

CURRENT CONNECTIONS

Baggies’ boss Steve Clarke spent 11 years as a player with Chelsea between 1987-98, making 421 appearances. He also spent four years coaching the Blues' first-team.

Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo spent 19 months in charge of West Brom between 2009 and 2011, leading the club back to the Premier League in 2010.

Di Matteo's assistant at Stamford Bridge - Eddie Newton, was also the Italian's assistant during his time at The Hawthorns. Both men are also former Chelsea players.

Chelsea's young Belgian international striker Romelu Lukaku is currently on a season long loan at Albion.

PAST CONNECTIONS

Amongst the players to have turned out at various levels for both clubs are: Neil Clement, Shaun Cummings, Warren Cummings, Alan Dickens, Tony Godden, Derek Kevan, Paddy Mulligan, Frank Nouble, Fred Richardson, Graham Roberts, Fred Rouse, Frank Sinclair, David Speedie, Kenny Swain and Mickey Thomas.
  
Former
Albion manager Jack Smith was a player for Chelsea prior to the Second World War; World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst had a short spell as a player at The Hawthorns before later managing the London club; Ex-Albion player and manager Don Howe had a spell as Chelsea coach; Former Baggies' goalkeeper Bob Ward would later act as Chelsea physio.

ALL-TIME LEAGUE & CUP RECORD VS CHELSEA

 VENUE P W D  L F A
 Home 62 24 16 22 100 74
 Away 63 17 16 30 83 125
 Neutral 2 0 1 1 1 5
 Total 127 41 33 53 184 204

LAST TEN MATCHES AGAINST CHELSEA

 DATE COMPETITION H/A F-A SCORERS  GATE
 Sat 03 Mar 2012 Premier League H 1-0 McAuley  24,838
 Sat 20 Aug 2011 Premier League A 1-2 Long - Anelka, Malouda  41,091
 Sat 16 Apr 2011 Premier League H 1-3 Odemwingie - Drogba, Kalou, Lampard  25,163
 Sat 14 Aug 2010 Premier League A 0-6 Malouda 2, Drogba 3, Lampard  41,589
 Fri 26 Dec 2008 Premier League A 0-2 Drogba, Lampard  41,090
 Sat 15 Nov 2008 Premier League H 0-3 Bosingwa, Anelka 2  26,322
 Sat 04 Mar 2006 Premier League H 1-2 Kanu - Drogba, J Cole  26,581
 Wed 24 Aug 2005 Premier League A 0-4 Lampard 2, J Cole, Drogba  41,201
 Tue 15 Mar 2005 Premier League A 0-1 Drogba  41,713
 Sat 30 Oct 2004 Premier League H 1-4 Gera - Gallas, Gudjohnsen, Duff, Lampard  27,399
 
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