West Brom hope to start the New Year as they ended it as they travel to South Wales to face Swansea City at the Swansea.com Stadium in the EFL Championship. The Baggies secured back-to-back wins over Norwich City and Leeds United respectively and it has helped them establish their place in the top-six.
Carlos Corberan on the backdrop of an uncertain takeover and the inability to bring in new players has got his side in the play-off positions at a little over the half-way point of the campaign. West Brom claimed a narrow 1-0 win over Leeds last time out with Grady Diangana scoring the only goal of the game at The Hawthorn's.
West Brom begin 2024 with a match against managerless Swansea, and they will be hoping that they can replicate their result from their result earlier on in the season. West Brom won 3-2 against Swansea, winning courtesy of goals from Semi Ajayi, John Swift and an own goal from Carl Rushworth.
Swansea did score two goals late on from Harry Darling and Nathan Wood but it wasn't enough to mount a comeback. Since that win in August, Swansea have changed managers, and sacked Michael Duff. The Welsh side have yet to replace him, and after talks fell through with Spurs coach Chris Davies, Alan Sheehan has remained in charge.
A win for West Brom coupled with a four-goal swing could see them overtake Leeds United in fourth. If the worst were to happen and they were to drop points, they'd unlikely drop down to sixth even if Hull City did win. Should Swansea win they could move up two places into 15th, and move to within just two points of their bitter rivals Cardiff City.
The injury list at West Brom is getting shorter and we could soon see two long-term absentees in Daryl Dike and Martin Kelly make returns. Swansea have got summer signing Josh Ginnelly ruled out for the season, whilst there are also some doubts. Here's the latest injury and team news from both the West Brom and the Swansea City camps ahead of kick-off.
1. Jed Wallace - doubt
Came off in the 70th minute with a groin injury against Leeds United. Given West Brom's injuries in the forward area, his potential absence would be a big miss, but touch wood, he should be okay to come through and play against Swansea. Photo: Getty Images
2. Jed Wallace - doubt
Jed Wallace said on December 29: "This time of year, there's a lot of games. I think it was just a bit of fatigue in my groin. I under-hit a corner at the near post and then it felt a bit tight," "You don't really care when you win. We're buzzing. We know there's a long way to go but that's two big games and two wins. Photo: Getty Images
3. Josh Key - out
Suffered an injury against Preston North End just before Christmas and has missed the last two games, having played 19 times in the league this season.
4. Josh Key - out (continued)
Alan Sheehan said on December 29: "It's not good. "It's a muscle injury. He'll miss a while. "I don't know. It'll be a while. "What is a while? I think anywhere between four to eight weeks."