Back Berahino And Both Teams To Score!

Sunday’s live Premier League action kicks off with West Brom hosting a much-improved Newcastle and only goal difference separating the two teams.

Form
West Brom continued their decent start to the season with a 1-0 win away to Leicester last weekend, when Esteban Cambaisso was unfortunate to score at the wrong end. Alan Irvine’s charges are now unbeaten in their last three after successive 2-2 draws at home with 13 points from ten Premier League games to leave them four points away from both the relegation zone and the top four.

Only the top two have scored more on their own patch than the Baggies with Saido Berahino leading from the front with seven league goals and eight in total, which saw him called up to the senior England squad this week for the first time.

Four wins on the trot, including victories over both of last season’s top two, have finally got Newcastle up and running this season and considerably eased the pressure on boss Alan Pardew. The Magpies are now unbeaten in five outings, have also kept clean sheets in three of those four victories and looks an entirely different prospect than the side that failed to win any of their first seven league games.

A goal from substitute Ayoze Perez – a second winning goal in a row for the Spaniard – gave Newcastle a fully deserved 1-0 win over Liverpool last Saturday at St James’s Park to see them level on points with Sunday’s opponents.

Papiss Cisse is the club’s top scorer to date with four goals from only three starts.

Team News
Craig Gardner is suspended for West Brom having picked up a fifth yellow card of the season against Leicester, with Silvestre Varela and Jonas Olsson also missing through injury. Belgian full-back Sebastien Pocognoli is also doubtful with a knock with Cristian Gamboa likely to deputise.

Pardew has a host of injury worries which could compromise his side’s winning streak with Cisse and Cheick Tiote both doubtful while Mike Williamson and Gabriel Obertan have joined long-term absentees Siem de Jong, Davide Santon and Jonas Gutierrez on the sidelines.

Head-to-Head
Berahino scored the only goal when the teams last met at the Hawthorns on New Year’s Day, which is also the only time in the last 13 meetings that both teams haven’t scored in this fixture. That was the only win in five for West Brom against the Magpies, who’ve won three of those five. Cisse has scored three times in his last three appearances against these opponents.

Recommended Bets
This certainly looks one of the more difficult games to call in this weekend’s fixtures, as the Baggies have been the more impressive over their first ten games overall but Newcastle have turned their fortunes around in impressive fashion over recent weeks and the minimal gap between the two in the table shows there’s little to choose between them.

With that in mind a draw at 5/2 seems the pick of the options in the Match Betting market while 5/4 on Newcastle in Draw No Bet is also a decent shout.

Both teams finding the back of the net looks likely at 8/11 and it’s hard to look past Berahino in the goalscorering stakes at 9/2 to net first and 5/4 anytimeand 1-1 could also be worth a nibble at 11/2 as a Correct Score, while a third 2-2 draw in a row at the Hawthorns is priced at 12/1.