Tony Pulis talked about the “concertina effect” in the Premier League this season and his midfielder Darren Fletcher was singing from the same song sheet when he highlighted the dangers of losing a couple of matches and “getting sucked back into” the scrap near the bottom.
For the first time since Pulis took over as manager 12 months ago, West Bromwich Albion have gone five games without a win, and the fact that they have just suffered successive defeats against two of the teams below them – Bournemouth and Swansea City – has sounded a few alarm bells.
No one at Albion is reaching for the panic button, with Pulis and his players adamant that they have not been getting the breaks of late, in particular when it comes to penalty decisions, yet the warning signs are there. Although Newcastle are in the relegation zone, Steve McClaren’s side will go level on points with Albion, five places above them, if they win at The Hawthorns on Monday.
“This league this year is as tough as it has been,” said Pulis, who is expected to give the unsettled Saido Berahino his first start for two months in the Newcastle game. “There’s a concertina effect with clubs that means anybody could be involved [in the relegation battle].”
Other than a lack of goals, which has not been helped by the fallout from Tottenham Hotspur’s failed attempts to sign Berahino in the summer, the main concern for Albion is poor form on their own ground. Only Aston Villa, the Premier League’s bottom club, have picked up fewer points at home this season.
“The league’s so tight,” Fletcher said. “If you can win a couple of games you find yourself in a real good position, but if you lose a couple you get sucked back into it. We realise that, but we’re capable of winning games. We didn’t really deserve to lose at Swansea and that’s been the story of the last couple of matches, so hopefully we can put that right against Newcastle.”
A sense of injustice pursued Albion at Swansea, where Pulis felt that Roger East, the referee, denied them two clear penalties. Fletcher claimed that Albion have now been on the wrong end of half a dozen spot-kick decisions this season, although the captain was honest enough to admit that Callum McManaman, whom Pulis has criticised for diving this season, did not help himself when he tumbled to the ground rather theatrically late-on.
“I think Call’s made the most of it and that’s why it’s not given,” Fletcher said. “I think everyone can see that, he throws himself. I think sometimes with an unnatural movement you don’t get it. Maybe if he tried to stay on his feet, take the hit and go down, he might get a penalty but when you throw yourself like that you’re not going to get them, and that’s another one of those frustrating ones.” For Swansea there is finally some light at the end of a long tunnel.
The club are still without a manager and they desperately need a proven goalscorer but a first league win in more than two months, courtesy of Ki Sung-yueng’s ninth minute tap-in, has at least bought breathing space.
Two away games follow, at Crystal Palace on Monday and Manchester United on Saturday, and Swansea will need to show the same sort of character and spirit that the evergreen Leon Britton epitomised against Albion if they are to get anything from those matches.
“We would rather be passing and pleasing on the eye, that’s the ideal way to pick up three points,” Britton said. “But in certain games, and certain situations, the game dictates what you have to do and West Brom was a case of digging in and grinding out a result.”
Man of the match Leon Britton (Swansea City)
