West Brom now definitely in a relegation battle
West Ham’s win over Chelsea today, coupled with West Brom’s defeat to fellow strugglers Swansea, leaves the two clubs level on 13 points in the official league table — with West Brom ranked just ahead in the official table, due to their slightly less awful goal difference.
But the two clubs’ alt-3 schedule-strength ratings tell a different story: the Hammers have faced an appreciably more harder fixture list up to the present date than have Albion. In the mathematically principled alt-3 league table, then, West Brom are in 18th place, below West Ham, and clearly now among this season’s relegation candidates unless things improve soon for the midlands club.
The reason becomes clear just from a look at the two clubs’ remaining fixtures up to the halfway point of the season. West Ham will face Arsenal (H), Stoke (A) and Newcastle (H); while West Brom have a much tougher next 3 fixtures, with matches against Liverpool (A) and Manchester United (H) as well as Stoke (A). The alt-3 table takes proper account of that difference between the two clubs’ match schedules.
Current alt-3 schedule-strength charts:
(To see any other club’s current alt-3 schedule-strength chart, just click on the club name in the alt-3 league table.)