Analysis: A convincing but more importantly key win for West Brom
That was a convincing, and potentially key, victory for Albion.
Blackburn are in a tough place and were poor but that didn’t mean it would automatically be a walk in the park for the Baggies, but that’s exactly what it turned out to be.
It had the feeling, beforehand, of a contest in which Carlos Corberan’s side could ill-afford to slip up in. The corresponding fixture last year, almost exactly 11 months ago, saw important points dropped at the death.
Albion had already seen top-six rivals Hull lose to Norwich, where the Baggies travel next time out, the night before. As it turned out, fellow rivals Sunderland would fall to defeat at Ipswich. It was almost perfect elsewhere, but for Coventry turning over leaders Leicester.
It is too early to fret about scorelines elsewhere each week, but the point stands that these are the games, where Albion are strong at home and visitors fear travelling, that Corberan’s men must ram home their Hawthorns advantage.
And they did that with consummate ease.
It gave a positive outlook to the Championship table come Saturday night. The Baggies grew a five-point buffer between themselves and the chasers in seventh and beyond. The gap has been that big before – now the test is for Albion to show consistency, more so away from home, to maintain it.
It’s been a positive and encouraging few days. Mostly the news that US Florida-born doctor and entrepreneur Shilen Patel has emerged as the frontrunner in the race to purchase the club from Guochuan Lai. There remains, of course, no shortage of work to do on that front and, ultimately, only Lai and his Chinese backers will decide whose bid will be the successful one to take the Baggies on from the Yunyi Guokai group.
