Football Bet of the Day: West Brom can secure Friday night clean sheet vs Southampton

We’ve got an action-packed Friday night of football to look forward to, with games from all over the continent taking place. However, our Football Bet of the Day comes from the Championship as two of the big guns tussling it out for promotion meet at the Hawthorns.

It’s time to take advantage of a Southampton side who had their confidence knocked in midweek with a 3-1 defeat to Bristol City. They scored a late consolation penalty in that game, but were clearly second-best as they lost their gargantuan unbeaten run.

That unbeaten run stretched back to September, 25 matches in all competitions before the Robins put them to the sword. As a result, Russell Martin’s men have slipped out of the automatic places and the pressure could rise around St Mary’s.

After a slip up, this is the last place they will want to travel to. Also, and it must be taken into consideration, these two are playing two games in 72 hours. While West Brom have had two home matches, and a relatively simple win over Cardiff, Southampton have long away trips to Bristol and West Bromwich.

It’s not the best preparation for a tough away trip and as a result I believe they will come up short here. West Brom have the third-best home record in the Championship having won 11 of their 16 matches so far. They lost just twice at home (to Leicester and Huddersfield), and conceded just 11 goals in those 16 encounters on home soil.

I think they will be able to keep Southampton at bay, despite Saints' clear attacking ability. That late penalty from Adam Armstrong in midweek kept their goalscoring run going, and they have scored in every match since the 9th September. But, West Brom have already beaten Ipswich Town and Leeds United on home soil already this term without conceding a goal, and with Southampton of equal quality to those two teams, I think it is a pattern that could repeat itself.

Carlos Corberan’s defensive structure should be able to cope with Southampton’s high-possession football and they won’t mind giving up the ball and looking to strike on the counter-attack. Having only conceded 29 goals this term, another clean sheet here would be a major statement.

As a result, in what could be a precursor to the play-offs, our Football Bet of the Day for Friday 16th February is West Brom to beat Southampton to nil at odds of 4/1.

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