Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Tony Pulis will be going up against some familiar faces this Afternoon not only will be going up against one his former clubs Stoke but he will also be going up against one his former players Saido Berahino who recently made the short trip from The Hawthorns to The Bet365 Stadium.
And the build up to this game has been dominated by the England Under 21 international. A return to a former club is always going to make for an interesting sub plot by in regards to Saido Berahino then the story becomes even more juicier.
That is because it’s come to light that Berahino suffered an 8 week ban while at West Brom due to failing an out of competition drugs test. Stoke boss Mark Hughes has fulled the fire by confirming newspaper reports of suspicions along those lines.
But Tony Pulis has seemingly poured petrol on matters by going to say yesterday that ‘Berahino is no longer his problem’ now that he has made the move to Stoke. Now if that does not gee a player to score against his former club then I don’t know what will.
In regards to matters on the pitch, West Brom’s impressive season continues as they once again are in 8th position. Regardless of result they will stay there due to having a 4 point gap over Today’s opposition so with 8th playing 9th there is not a lot to split these two sides.
Tony Pulis will probably feel like the draw away at Middlesbrough was two points dropped. After going ahead through an early James Morrison strike they were pegged back thanks to an Alvaro Negredo penalty. That was how it ended and it was arguably a point that suited ‘Boro more than West Brom.
1-1 was also the order of the day 24 hours later as Stoke held in form Everton at The Bet365 Stadium. After going in front through a Peter Crouch goal, a tap in that was his 100th Premier League goal and which subsequently bought back the robot celebration for one night only. They were then pegged back thanks to a Ryan Shawcross own goal.
And to be honest that is exactly how I see this one panning out later on Today. As mentioned above with their league places being 8th and 9th there is very little to choose from especially as The Baggies have only lost 1 of their last five and Stoke are unbeaten in their last four. For that reason I reckon it will be a 1-1 draw.
