The first of Albion’s tricky trio of successive games against three of the Premier League’s top four is against Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur at the Hawthorns on Saturday. The Argentine has guided Spurs to an impressive unbeaten league start culminating in an impressive victory over leaders, Manchester City, before the international break.
Albion’s draw at the Stadium of Light saw them cling on to a spot in the top half of the Premier League, but with unbeaten Spurs up next after the international break, they will do well to hang on into the second half of October.
Tony Pulis takes his Albion side to the Stadium of Light on Saturday look for a second victory on the road this season, while Sunderland are rock bottom of the table still looking for their first points of the Premier League season on their own patch.
As can be seen from below, eight points from the first six games has become pretty standard for Albion of late, for the last four seasons at least. Only in 2010 and 2012 have Albion bettered that start in the Premier League.
It is, perhaps, somewhat fitting that Tony Pulis’s 1,000th game as a manager is against the club he led for almost half of those games (464), Stoke City. It is also fitting, and certainly encouraging for Baggies fans, that it is a fixture that he has never lost.
The win over West Ham puts Albion into the top ten in the Premier League and it is once again the Baggies’ second best start to a Premier League season only, bettered by the 10 points from 5 games achieved in 2012 under Steve Clarke which saw Albion in 3rd place.