Goalless in four and lead down to two: We asked a West Brom writer if Sheffield Wednesday are right to smell blood

The Baggies have gone goalless in their last four games and have surrendered their top spot to Leeds United, drawing 0-0 with lowly Birmingham before losing 1-0 at promotion rivals Brentford.

Sheffield Wednesday, on the other hand, are cautiously optimistic about the last three weeks of the season having claimed encouraging results against Nottingham Forest and Bristol City.

So could this be a chance to give West Brom a bloody nose? We asked Express & Star football writer Luke Hatfield for the lowdown on panic, formations and how the Midlands side are likely to line up.

What do you put this slow start down to?

It's been a tough one. Everyone expected Albion to jump straight back into their groove. They had a it of a blip just before lockdown and went goalless a couple of games before lockdown. We expected them to come back fresh with Grady Diangana back after his injury.

It looks a lot like rust to be honest, the movement hasn't really been up to standard and the big players haven't really been firing and for the first time there have been queries over Slaven Bilic's team selection.

Is there any sense of panic about?

You get the sense a lot of Albion fans are starting to get a little fearful considering they seem to have started so slowly, but the games they had were against Birmingham, who set up incredibly defensively and then Brentford away which is one of the tougher games in the league.

They'll look at the fixtures they've got now, maybe not particularly Sheffield Wednesday, but certainly Hull at the weekend, these are games they should be picking up three points.

But there isn't any panic within the camp. Bilic comes across very cool and collected and there's a reassurance within the club that they've got more than enough quality. You look on the bench and the players they have to bring on, especially with the subs you can now bring on, there's a wide feeling across the club that they've still got enough. But a couple of games without a win and they might think otherwise.

How will they set up tonight?

They typically set up in one of two systems that Bilic has masterminded. At the start of the season when they were so good they were in a 4-3-2-1, with Pereira in the number 10 which is his best position, but later on he's gone for a 4-3-3, which he said was a lot more defensively sound and was still offering enough going forward.

It meant Pereira moving onto the right-hand-side of a front three so he can cut onto his left foot, Grady Diangana on the left and Krovinovic dropping into midfield to assist Sawyers and Livermore. It'll be one of those two systems but I imagine they'll go into a 4-3-3.

And what’s your predicted line-up?

Johnstone; O'Shea, Hegazi, Ajayi, Gibbs; Livermore, Sawyers, Krovinovic; Pereira, Zohore, Robinson

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