When Tony Pulis signed a one-year contract extension at West Bromwich Albion in October, he spoke of how he intended to move the club forward but warned against the scourge he has devoted his career to trying to eradicate: wishful thinking. “There’s a star in the sky and everyone is pointing at that star,” he tut-tutted. “They’re not looking at other things left, right and centre.”
Pulis is not a manager who spends time gazing at stars but that is not to say he eschews high aims. And look, West Bromwich are suddenly seventh in the Premier League, having been one place above the relegation zone a month ago. As things stand, Pulis is on course to achieve his target of a top-half finish, which, admirable as his record is, would be a first for him in a career spanning nearly three decades. The West Brom winger James McClean suggested this week that with a bit of luck, European qualification could be within reach.
The calm and considered response to that is: “Woah there.” The surge up the table has come from wins over Leicester, Burnley and Watford and a draw at Hull. Good results but not sensational. Before that Albion had won only one of nine league matches and been knocked out of the EFL Cup by Northampton Town. However, even with those caveats noted, there have been enough encouraging signs in the past four performances to indicate there is sustainable change afoot and they really could stay in the top half of the table and possibly pour cold water on Chelsea’s hot streak on Sunday.
The most striking thing has been how well and enthusiastically West Bromwich have attacked. They have scored as many goals in the past four matches as they did in the previous 10. Before the splurge they looked a lot like the team of last season, who averaged less than a goal a game and did not record a shot on target in nearly a quarter of their matches.
Last season’s side steered clear of relegation but were despairingly far from entertaining. The best advertisement for Pulis’s management was the floundering of neighbours such as Aston Villa and Wolves. So there was something of a schism in The Hawthorns congregation when Pulis signed his new contract – between pragmatist fans who drew comfort from the certainty he would never get them relegated, and fun-loving supporters who thought boredom was too high a price to pay for survival.
But all West Bromwich fans have enjoyed the past four matches. Their team have played not like last season but more in a manner approaching Pulis’s surprisingly adventurous and triumphant Crystal Palace team of two years ago. Several factors are at play. First, the returns to fitness of James Morrison and Chris Brunt have been major pluses. Morrison missed the second half of last season through injury and has regained enough sharpness to have contributed thrust and creativity from midfield in recent weeks. Brunt was absent for longer but you would not guess from his performances over the same period. He, too, enhances Albion’s creativity from open play and thanks to his impeccable set-piece deliveries, which are a valuable resource for a team armed with powerful headers of the ball such as Jonny Evans and Gareth McAuley.
Brunt, endowed with a left foot so learned it could conjugate Latin verbs, has been operating on the right in recent weeks so he can cut infield and shoot while allowing Matt Phillips to revel down the left. Phillips, a £5.5m summer recruit from Queen Park Rangers, has been in wonderful recent form, scoring three goals in his past four matches and dribbling and crossing in a way that suggests Pulis has helped him overcome confidence problems.
It is not just about individual contributions. There has been a collective change of mood. That was particularly evident at Leicester, when West Bromwich outplayed the champions from the start and became the first league visitors in more than a year to leave the King Power with a victory. That was a notable performance for a team whose default away-setting used to be to go for a goalless draw. “We’re getting the ball in the box, getting more people in the box and attacking more and better,” said the captain, Darren Fletcher, of the recent upswing after Saturday’s win over Watford, which, as it turned out, was harder fought than the one at Leicester.
West Bromwich have not transformed into buccaneers but their increased attacking has, at least, meant Salomón Rondón, a terrific centre-forward who can do a fair Diego Costa impression on a good day, has not always been as isolated as in the past. They even have useful attacking options on the bench despite the continued absence of Saido Berahino. McClean and the summer recruit Nacer Chadli tend to make strong impacts. Pulis plans to enhance his squad in January, too.
They still have a reliable goalkeeper and defence, to which Allan Nyom has been good summer addition, but they have not placed quite so much pressure on the back four in recent weeks because they have been minded to go forward more. It will be interesting to see whether they are able to continue that at Stamford Bridge , and against Manchester United and Arsenal in the following weeks.
