In the Premier League, there are crunch games and then there’s Huddersfield at home when you’re bottom of the league, seven points adrift of safety, and you’ve only won once in the last 25 attempts, 13 of them under new management. Oh, and four of your most senior players find themselves in the doghouse for stealing a taxi on a warm-weather training camp in Barcelona.
Atonement tops a long list of reasons why West Brom should be backed to overcome the Terriers this weekend. Victory over David Wagner’s men won’t make everything all right, but it would be a start - perhaps the only start that those in the corridors of power at the Hawthorns could stomach. If Albion don’t prevail here, the next three months could be purgatory on the training ground.
The Baggies had a chance to show they were sorry for the unwanted headlines against Southampton in the FA Cup last weekend. But, in truth, the dust had barely settled on those bizarre happenings in Catalonia. Jonny Evans, Gareth Barry, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill had created a firestorm and the squad didn’t return to the Midlands until Friday afternoon.
Alan Pardew and his players have faced the music nowm though, and spent a week stewing on the type of embarrassment only ever reserved for very naughty boys. At least, that’s the picture from the outside. On the inside, of course, the Albion players have probably had a right good giggle about the whole episode and it might even have brought them a little closer together.
Either way, it doesn’t change the importance of this game and we should anticipate a show of defiance. The same team that dumped Liverpool out of the FA Cup at Anfield only a month ago can surely dispatch of opposition that has failed to score in 10 of their last dozen away games. Right now, the Baggies couldn’t have handpicked a better fixture.
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Some might argue that Huddersfield can approach this game in a more relaxed manner having eased their own relegation concerns with a resounding 4-1 win over Bournemouth a fortnight ago. But tranquillity isn’t really a valuable currency to the lowest-budget team in the league. Fear and intensity were the driving forces behind their success against the Cherries.
Huddersfield found their A-game against Eddie Howe’s men, just as they had peaked in a handful of games prior to Christmas. But since the schedule started coming at them thick and fast, those pinnacle performances are becoming fewer and further between. That the Bournemouth game was so recent should only be a source of encouragement to those looking to oppose them.
Indeed, half of the problem with being Huddersfield is that your name, when accompanied by an H in brackets, lights up like a beacon on the fixture list at this time of year. It screams 'gimme' to any team scraping around for points and the objective is clear cut. There’s an inherent understanding that excuses of any sort won’t be tolerated, generating a cold-eyed focus.
Gone is the novelty that enabled the Terriers to prey on the trivial insecurities of others when the value of three points was arbitrary in the overall scheme of things. Now the numbers are very real and the difference between needing 15 points or 17 with only 10 games remaining is tangible when there's so much at stake.
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West Brom to beat Huddersfield at 21/20
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