Albion’s Premier League Season Comparison – 37 games

As I walked out of the Hawthorns on Saturday evening with the echoes of the Great Escape theme tune in my ears for the first time this season, I couldn’t help think that someone was watching over Darren Moore’s Baggies as yet another incredible result had been achieved.

A little over two hours later, such thoughts were far from my mind as Southampton appeared to be heading to a victory that would confine us to Championship football next season, only for another fortunate stoppage time goal, this time from Everton’s Tom Davies, to keep the hopes alive for another few days.

Jake Livermore’s scrambled goal looked suspiciously off side when I watched it back on Match of the Day, but the linesman on the West Stand side had had a torrid afternoon, and even if he had seen it (it was probably difficult to pinpoint who played the ball forward), I doubt he would’ve had the heart to interrupt those celebrations!

And so we look next to Tuesday evening when Swansea play host to Southampton. If that does end up as a draw, we look to next Saturday when all Baggies fans will not just be cheering on Albion, but also Stoke and Man City hoping that the Champions finish off the season in style and a thumping victory to help that five goal swing that we need.

The odds remain stocked against Albion, with most bookies having them at 1/200 to go down, but no one expected it to go this far. My gut feel is that Southampton will beat Swansea on Tuesday, they seem to have some momentum and Swansea just look dreadful. But then who knows….

Back in 2005, I had been in a Manchester pub on the Saturday afternoon watching Soccer Saturday and, when we left to make our way to Old Trafford for the tea time fixture, Crystal Palace were leading Southampton heading into the dying minutes, a result that would see us relegated before we kicked off against United. As we walked up, the news filtered through that Danny Higginbotham had equalised in stoppage time and the Great Escape was back on!

The atmosphere in the away end that evening was incredible, although Giggs’s first half opener did dent it a little. But like yesterday’s match with Spurs, Albion were never out of the game and mid-way through the second half, Mark Halsey broke the cardinal rule for referees at Old Trafford by awarding a penalty to the visitors – Earnshaw scored it and, despite dropping to the bottom of the table thanks to Norwich’s victory over Birmingham City, the Baggies lived on to have a fighting chance on the final day.

After that match the table stood as follows:

Premier League Relegation Battle – 7th May 2005
Pld W D L F A GD Pts
17. Norwich City 37 7 12 18 42 71 -29 33
18. Southampton 37 6 14 17 44 64 -20 32
19. Crystal Palace 37 7 11 19 39 60 -21 32
20. West Brom 37 5 16 16 34 61 -28 31

 
Here are the full season by season comparisons.

Home Away Season End
Pld W D L F A Pts Posn* W D L F A Pts W D L F A Pts Posn Pts
2002/2003 37 6 7 24 27 63 25 19th 3 4 11 15 32 13 3 3 13 12 31 12 19th 26
2004/2005 37 5 16 16 34 61 31 20th 4 8 6 15 24 20 1 8 10 19 37 11 17th 34
2005/2006 37 7 8 22 29 56 29 19th 6 2 11 21 24 20 1 6 11 8 32 9 19th 30
2008/2009 37 8 7 22 36 67 31 20th 7 3 9 26 33 24 1 4 13 10 34 7 20th 32
2010/2011 37 12 10 15 53 68 46 10th 8 6 5 30 30 30 4 4 10 23 38 16 11th 47
2011/2012 37 13 8 16 43 49 47 10th 6 3 9 19 19 21 7 5 7 24 30 26 10th 47
2012/2013 37 14 6 17 48 52 48 8th 9 3 6 27 20 30 5 3 11 21 32 18 8th 49
2013/2014 37 7 15 15 42 57 36 17th 4 9 5 23 25 21 3 6 10 19 32 15 17th 36
2014/2015 37 11 11 15 37 47 44 13th 7 4 8 24 26 25 4 7 7 13 21 19 13th 44
2015/2016 37 10 12 15 33 47 42 15th 6 4 8 19 25 22 4 8 7 14 22 20 14th 43
2016/2017 37 12 9 16 42 49 45 9th 9 2 8 27 22 29 3 7 8 15 27 16 10th 45
2017/2018 37 6 13 18 31 54 31 19th 3 9 7 21 29 18 3 4 11 10 25 13

 

Comparison of Equivalent Fixtures^
Pld W D L F A Pts
2016/2017 37 11 9 17 42 51 42
2016/2017 Results Tottenham Hotspur (H) D 1-1
Crystal Palace (A) W 1-0

 

Results

2002/2003 03/05/2003 Blackburn Rovers (A) D 1-1 Koumas
2004/2005 07/05/2005 Manchester United (A) D 1-1 Earnshaw (pen)
2005/2006 01/05/2006 West Ham United (H) L 0-1
2008/2009 17/05/2009 Liverpool (H) L 0-2
2010/2011 14/05/2011 Everton (H) W 1-0 Mulumbu
2011/2012 06/05/2012 Bolton Wanderers (A) D 2-2 Brunt, Morrison
2012/2013 12/05/2013 Norwich City (A) L 0-4
2013/2014 07/05/2014 Sunderland (A) L 0-2
2014/2015 18/05/2015 Chelsea (H) W 3-0 Berahino (2, 1 pen), Brunt
2015/2016 07/05/2016 AFC Bournemouth (A) D 1-1 Rondón
2016/2017 16/05/2017 Manchester City (A) L 1-3 Robson-Kanu
2017/2018 05/05/2018 Tottenham Hotspur (H) W 1-0 Livermore

 

Next Matches

2002/2003 11/05/2003 Newcastle United (H) D 2-2 Dobie (2)
2004/2005 15/05/2005 Portsmouth (H) W 2-0 Horsfield, Richardson
2005/2006 07/05/2006 Everton (A) D 2-2 Gera, Martinez
2008/2009 24/05/2009 Blackburn Rovers (A) D 0-0
2010/2011 22/05/2011 Newcastle United (A) D 3-3 Tchoyi (3)
2011/2012 14/05/2012 Arsenal (H) L 2-3 Long, Dorrans
2012/2013 19/05/2013 Manchester United (H) D 5-5 Morrison, Lukaku (3), Mulumbu
2013/2014 11/05/2014 Stoke City (H) L 1-2 Sessègnon
2014/2015 24/05/2015 Arsenal (A) L 1-4 McAuley
2015/2016 15/05/2016 Liverpool (H) D 1-1 Rondón
2016/2017 21/05/2017 Swansea City (A) L 1-2 Evans
2017/2018 13/05/2018 Crystal Palace (A)

* Positions are recorded as Albion’s position in the Premier League table after all fixtures for that day have been completed.
^ Fixtures against promoted clubs are compared against fixtures against the relegated clubs from last season with the club finishing 1st in the Championship compared against the club finishing 18th in the Premier League, 2nd compared with 19th and the play-off winners compared against the club who finished bottom.

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