West Bromwich Albion vs Birmingham City - prediction, team news, lineups

Three weeks aft a disappointing show successful the Black Country derby, West Bromwich Albion prime up different West Midlands feud connected Saturday afternoon, erstwhile Birmingham City sojourn The Hawthorns successful the Championship.

The Baggies fell beneath their mean levels during the nonaccomplishment astatine Wolverhampton Wanderers anterior to the planetary break, whereas Blues played retired yet different gully astatine St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

Match preview

Unfortunately for those Baggies supporters who enactment and unrecorded alongside their Wolves counterparts, West Brom saved their worst show of the play to day for the opening Black Country derby of 2026-27 connected September 20.

Inaccurate passing astatine the backmost allowed Spanish maestro Fer Lopez to nett the lone extremity for the Old Gold, who were hosting a clash betwixt the 2 sides with fans wrong Molineux for the archetypal clip since February 2012.

Unfortunately, nary of the existent West Brom harvest were capable to transmission the tone of Peter Odemwingie arsenic James Morrison's broadside drew a anticlimactic blank successful the Black Country battle, with Albion going goalless successful a lucifer for the archetypal clip successful 2026-27.

Nevertheless, Saturday's hosts person enjoyed a affirmative commencement to the caller play aft past term's bottom-three flirtation, with the Baggies sitting successful 5th spot successful the Championship table aft 8 matches.

West Brom are 1 of 8 second-tier sides who are yet to sensation decision connected location ungraded this campaign, with the Black Country squad unbeaten crossed their past 11 matches (W4 D7) astatine The Hawthorns.

After passing teams into submission astatine St Andrew's during their League One rubric run of 2024-25, Birmingham City person experienced little power and much chaos successful the Second City truthful acold this season.

Prior to the extended planetary pause, Blues recorded their 4th consecutive Championship location stalemate successful a 2-2 with Middlesbrough, who benefitted from a James Beadle fumble to nett a precocious equaliser.

Chris Davies's troops person go the gully specialists successful the opening weeks of the term, sharing the spoils successful 5 of their archetypal 8 fixtures, with 2 wins boosting them up to 10th spot successful the second-tier table.

Contrasting with the antagonistic inclination from past season, Birmingham person collected some of their Championship victories connected the roadworthy truthful far, defeating Wrexham and Derby County by 2-1 scorelines.

Providing 2 assists successful that triumph astatine Pride Park past month, Hull City loanee Liam Millar has shown the attacking consistency that helium has threatened successful erstwhile years, with the Canada planetary providing 4 extremity contributions successful arsenic galore games for Blues.

West Bromwich Albion Championship form:

Birmingham City Championship form:

Team News

West Brom released a important portion of wounded quality during the planetary break, with  Noah Galves acceptable to miss the remainder of the play owed to a genu problem.

That leaves summertime signing Brayann Pereira arsenic the lone recognised right-back for the Baggies until they tin dip into the wintertime marketplace successful January.

However, it appears that caput manager Morrison is reluctant to manus the full-back keys to the 23-year-old immediately, meaning that Callum Styles could commencement connected the close broadside erstwhile again.

Birmingham's squad extent has benefitted massively from the three-week break, with Demarai Gray, Max Bird and erstwhile Albion antheral Taylor Gardner-Hickman each backmost successful contention.

Star midfielder Jhon Solis has returned to England aft making his elder Colombia debut, though the planetary model was little enjoyable for Paik Seung-Ho.

The South Korean picked up a knock, meaning that helium could miss the upcoming matches against West Brom, Preston North End and Queens Park Rangers.

West Bromwich Albion imaginable starting lineup:

O'Leary; Styles, Phillips, Campbell, Townsend; Nzingoula, Molumby, Diakite, Price; Heggebo, Morgan

Birmingham City imaginable starting lineup:

Beadle; Osayi-Samuel, Klarer, Neumann, Cochrane; Iwata, Solis, Vicente, Stansfield, Millar; Priske

We say: West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Birmingham City

After some of past season's meetings ended successful a stock of points, we are expecting West Brom and Birmingham to play retired different choky matter connected Saturday afternoon.

The Baggies volition beryllium hopeless to respond positively pursuing the decision by Wolves, and a gully against Blues would beryllium respectable result.

For information investigation of the astir apt results, scorelines and much for this lucifer delight click here.