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Who Will Win the Top Midlands Derby?

Leicester City may have been crowned champions last season but that is well and truly in the past now. There is little doubt as to who the current top two teams are in the midlands. That honour belongs to West Brom and Stoke City. Once again they are showing the rest of the league how to survive comfortably in what is the toughest league in Europe. Their respective managers Tony Pulis and Mark Hughes must take a lot of credit for that.

The balance of power in the midlands has swung away from Aston Villa and Birmingham City in recent seasons. West Brom is best-priced 11-8 with BetVictor and as the home team are rightly the clear favourites. Tony Pulis spent several successful seasons at Stoke and was the guiding force behind their transition into being a regular Premier League club.

Simply Nothing to Choose

The fact of the matter is that there is simply nothing to choose between these two clubs. This has been the case for the past several seasons. Clubs like West Brom and Stoke never seem to fire the imagination but both of them play entertaining football when they need to and are a match for any top club on their day.

Stoke are a best-priced 12-5 with Bet365 while the draw is an interesting 11-5. If you fancy these two teams to battle out a draw but you don’t fancy the 11-5 then why not take the better odds of 4-1 on the score being level at half-time and full-time? That seems to be better value given the fact that there is so little to choose between these teams.

Stoke have the Flair Players

Stoke City do seem to have the better of it when it comes to talent. Players like Marko Arnautovic, Charlie Adam and Xerdan Shaqiri are players who can turn a game and excite the crowd. West Brom, on the other hand, have grit and that reflects their “no nonsense” manager Tony Pulis. Games like these are often decided by singular moments of brilliance or a big decision by the referee or possibly by pure luck. There are rarely comfortable wins for either team and that especially applies to the away team.

So we can expect a close encounter with the winning margin being no more than two goals at best. Stoke and West Brom are renowned for grinding results out with their solid approaches and that is why they are where they are in the league table.

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