Portsmouth vs West Brom Prediction: Maja’s scoring streak to continue

Portsmouth welcome West Bromwich Albion to Fratton Park on Sunday (15:00, Sky Sports Football) in the EFL Championship, looking to respond from their 3-1 defeat at home to Sunderland last time out. 

They face a Baggies side who sit second in the table having achieved an unbeaten start to the campaign. Read on for my Portsmouth vs West Brom prediction, including match odds and team news.

Portsmouth vs West Brom Odds

Portsmouth are 16/5, or a 23.8% chance, to win this match. West Brom are priced at 9/10, giving them an implied probability of 52.6%. The draw is available at 5/2 (28.6%).

Both teams to score is marketed at 4/5 and over 2.5 goals can be backed at 10/11.

West Brom's Josh Maja has scored four goals in as many appearances in the Championship this season, and he is 13/8 to score anytime on Sunday, or 9/2 to open proceedings.

Football Odds

Team News

Pompey boss John Mousinho could bring Paddy Lane into the side to try and freshen things up, while summer signing Harvey Blair will be pushing for his first Championship start, and he could potentially come in for veteran Matt Ritchie.

Josh Murphy, Tom McIntyre, Conor Shaughnessy and Jacob Farrell have all returned from injury, which will give the hosts a boost heading into this clash.

Albion have no fresh injury concerns but deadline day arrivals Mason Holgate and Mikey Johnston are in contention to start.

Josh Maja anytime goalscorer @ 8/5

The former Sunderland man has started the season in great form, after a slow start to his Baggies career having joined last year. Four goals in as many games, Maja is the joint-leading marksman in the second tier, and I feel as though there are more goals in store for him in the next phase of matches.

With Daryl Dike injured, Maja was given a lot of responsibility at the start of term. Carlos Corberan added Devante Cole and Lewis Dobbin to the squad for competition, but the ex-Bordeaux striker is making the number nine spot his own.

We are seeing Maja playing with the confidence we saw him have at Sunderland that bought him his move to France. As we know, that move didn't go the way he would have liked and as a result his development stagnated. He looks to have found the right coach in Corberan to unlock his potential and his performances so far would suggest the Spaniard is getting the very best out of him.

Maja is likely to start again this weekend on the south coast and he will be relishing the chance to face a Portsmouth side that have conceded eight goals already, with three coming against his former employers Sunderland before the international break.

I fancy Maja to keep his scoring streak going this weekend and so I am backing him to score at Fratton Park.

Over 2.5 goals @ 10/11

I fancy over 2.5 goals in this match because three of Pompey's Championship matches so far have at least seen three goals scored. Interestingly, this market has also been a winning selection in nine of West Brom's last 11 away matches in the league, so I expect both club's trends to continue here.

Portsmouth can't stop conceding goals at the moment and with the likes of Maja, Johnston, John Swift and Jed Wallace, the Baggies have the quality to exploit that. Albion are gunning for a third-straight victory here and they have three goals from those previous wins.

They fired three past Queens Park Rangers on the opening weekend of the season, with all three coming from Maja, and Portsmouth's back line looks to be more troubled than that of the Rs, so I think we could be in store for another ruthless attacking performance from the Baggies.

Against a defence that is low on confidence, I expect Corberan's players to profit, so I see over 2.5 goals coming in with relative ease at Fratton Park on Sunday.

Offers

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