Last weekend saw us record our most emphatic home win of the season, beating in-form Sunderland 4-0.
Once again, the score line was a true reflection on the game itself, as we dominated from start to finish and never really looked like conceding against a Sunderland side who had performed so well in recent weeks under Martin O’Neill.
Peter Odemwingie made it five goals in two games by following up his hat-trick at Molineux with a brace on Saturday, while James Morrison and Keith Andrews both capped fine individual performances by scoring a goal each.
Leaving The Hawthorns pleased with an Albion result has not been a common occurrence this season, with our home form being a major cause for concern among supporters.
Attacking formation
By naming the same team as he did at Wolves, Roy Hodgson ensured that we continued to commit a number of players forward without worrying about making ourselves any easier to score against.
A number of players performed very well, but a few are worth a particular mention.
Steven Reid has been an unsung hero at right-back this season, and was superb once again on Saturday. His distribution was outstanding, and he made several well-timed tackles when required.
Liam Ridgewell impressed at left-back, performing well defensively and linking up with the equally-impressive Jerome Thomas down the left-hand side to good effect throughout the game.
Keith Andrews has been very impressive in the one-and-a-half games he has played for the club, and capped another dynamic performance on Saturday with a superbly-taken goal to highlight his attacking capabilities.
My personal Man of the Match was James Morrison though, as he once again pulled all the strings in midfield and was at the heart of all our best moves. He has been in superb form throughout much of this season, and even capped a fine individual performance Saturday by scoring our second goal.
The final player who deserves a lot of credit for his display against Sunderland is Marc-Antoine Fortune, who has been a revelation in recent weeks since being handed a surprise start against Stoke City back in January. His hold-up play was once again outstanding, with the only disappointment being that he was unable to score a goal which his superb display undoubtedly deserved.
Upset
This weekend sees us take on Chelsea at The Hawthorns.
There has been a lot of talk about Chelsea this season, particularly about how their inexperienced manager Andre Villas-Boas seems to be struggling to keep some of their big name players happy when they are not in the side.
However, our record against Chelsea during the Premier League era has been incredibly poor. The closest we have come to picking up a result against them came at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season, when they needed a late winner to beat us after we took an early lead through Shane Long.
It will undoubtedly be a tough game, but if we continue to play as we have done over the last couple of games, hopefully we can put in a good performance and pick up a positive result!
Boing Boing!