West Brom head into Tuesday’s encounter fresh off the back of their first Championship defeat of the season. Although they may still sit top of the table, there is possibly an edge of vulnerability and caution about them. Head Coach Carlos Corberán won’t have liked seeing his side concede three goals at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday. They shipped just as many goals in this match than they did in their other six league games in 2024/25 combined. With them being 2-0 behind inside 25 minutes on that occasion, Albion could look to keep things tight early on here.

After all, it would be a sensible move for WBA to pay big respect to a Middlesbrough side that possess the kind of quality to beat any side at this level on their day. Their manager, Michael Carrick, may argue they’ve not had enough of those days this season, but he still retains big belief in his squad, so much he plans on retaining their current style of play despite some criticism. However, they’re without a first-half away league goal this season, so a stalemate could easily play out.

This clash puts together two outfits that love to play a pure possession-based game. Being the home side, West Brom should dictate the play early on but Middlesbrough can be a tough unit to break down when getting bodies behind the ball. The visitors will be more than aware that conceding first here makes it a very long way back for them, so staying in the game will be the priority before looking to offer a consistent goal threat travelling to a top of the league opponent. Carrick organises his team well defensively, proven by having the second-best xGA in the Championship this season.

West Brom at the very least should expect to avoid defeat in this home contest. They have motivation on their side given they are a team that has been used to winning and they did not do that last time out. Having a midweek game come around so quickly will suit them just nicely, whereas Middlesbrough would ideally want a full week to get a few injured bodies back to something like 100%.

For all that Boro will give their all in this match, it still may not necessarily be enough to get the result they want, particular as the home team have only outright lost on a +1 handicap in a Championship home fixture once since the beginning of last season.

Also, Middlesbrough are never one to have maximum faith in when away from home. They’ve already lost at rivals Sunderland and newly-promoted Derby on their travels this season, both without scoring in reply. Therefore, a -1 handicap for them on Tuesday appears a huge longshot for them to overcome. Since the start of November 2023, they’ve failed to win more than they’ve won away in league action. Within that run of matches they’ve won by a two-goal margin just 21.01% of the time and the vast majority of the victories would be ones they’d expect to record.

Given West Brom went down to a then struggling Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, they can be expected to produce some kind of reaction here. That is what good teams do and all indications so far this season are for them to contest near the top of the table, or at the very least the play-offs. Therefore, they’ll aim to resume winning ways, which is what they always do anyway at home. Naturally, corners can reflect dominance from a team.

The Baggies are ranked roughly in the lower to mid-table region when it comes to the number of corners they’ve had this season in the Championship. Their overall average reads at 4.57 but this is mainly due to a bit of an imbalance between what they achieve at home compared to away. When playing at The Hawthorns, this average increases to 5.33 across their three league contests here, so expecting a minimum of four on Tuesday stands a great chance on that basis.

Something that could put some off this selection is the fact Middlesbrough have not been conceding that many corners. However, there are likely many reasons for this. On paper it could be argued they’ve not faced too many of the stronger teams at this level, and WBA arguably will be their toughest assignment so far. Also, Boro will surely have to make some tactical switches here in a tough away clash, so they are going to invite more pressure than usual to try and get the result they want. This is risky but it could help Albion gain more corner situations.

In what may surprise some, Middlesbrough top the Championship corner tally in terms of average amount earned per game. It probably isn’t something that is necessarily expected of a side sitting in 8^th placed. Nevertheless, it does reflect their attacking intentions, which is understandable given the type of team Michael Carrick often names; with plenty of offensive weapons within. They’ll get chances to do that at West Brom, albeit perhaps not as many, but they should still get their moments given they average 7.86 corners.

Although the Teesside based team have achieved more corners in their home fixtures, that isn’t too say they’ve been struggling away from home. In fact, they have averaged 6.00 corners per match across their three league contests they’ve played on their league travels. Only five other clubs in the league have averaged more on the road, so that alone will give Boro hope of earning a similar amount against their top of the table opponents.

The team is expected to set up more as one that counter attacks oi the main for this clash given they are playing away against a team also strong in possession. Boro are comfortable on the ball too, but they will look to flood their own half to begin with and then break forward at speed. These will be the only situations that can catch West Brom out in terms of having fewer defensive bodies and less cover than usual. Therefore, the tactical aspect of this encounter means the away side will be able to utilise the pace they have going forward.

The top scorer in not just the Championship but the entire EFL this season is West Brom’s Josh Maja, who has been a real surprise package. It would be fair to say he has taken some time to settle into the surroundings of The Hawthorns after arriving last August but he is making up for lost time now free of injury. The former Bordeaux man has seven goals across seven Championship appearances so far and is clearly a strong candidate to maintain this level of return against Middlesbrough.

The case for him to threaten the opposition goal is strengthened further knowing how frequently he is prepared to get shots away. A big strength to his game is clearly his composure in front of goal, as he tends to work the goalkeeper more often than not. Maja is not only averaging 2.71 shots across the campaign, but 77.7% of his shots on target have resulted in goals.

Boro manager Michael Carrick will be instructing his defenders to keep a very close eye on who is currently the best striker in the league, however some injury issues in their centre back department means they could be weaker than they’d like. Against Stoke, none of their first-choice central defenders were fit enough to start and it is unclear if they’ll be OK to return to come up against a dangerous Maja.

Losing certainly has not been a habit for The Baggies this season. Their somewhat surprising away setback at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday was their first in league action this season, but they could’ve easily drawn that clash after conceding so late.

Therefore, they won’t let one loss set them back too much and if anything it’ll refocus them ahead of a tough home fixture against a Middlesbrough team that can cause them problems. West Brom have also yet to concede a home goal this season, proving that Boro will be made to work hard to score, yet alone get a positive result.

Middlesbrough are quite simply a much less reliable option to take for the win here. They travel to a club proudly sitting at the top of the table and reached the play-offs last season, so they’re more than used to winning. The one issue the Riverside Stadium club have had so far, as well as for long spells in 2023/24, is how inconsistent they are. Obviously nobody will win every game they play, but Middlesbrough’s record in all competitions is played three without a win, then win, followed by played three without a win, then win. Last season they had spells of no wins in seven, yet also won six in a row, too. They are less predictable and even after winning on Saturday they can’t be strong candidates to back it up.

In the battle of who should receive the fewest cards in Tuesday evening’s clash, there is a clear expected winner based upon what has happened so far in 2024/25. That answer is West Brom, purely because they are facing a Middlesbrough team that have received the lowest number of cards in the Championship with nine. In fact, they are the only club to have a single digit amount of cards to their name. The next closest in that category is Hull with 11.

It is not necessarily the case that West Brom are a card happy outfit that regularly attracts the attention of the referee in the form of cards. Interestingly, they have committed an almost identical number of fouls that Middlesbrough have done in league action in 2024/25.

Perhaps one reason for this is that Albion have been winning a lot of games and could have produced offensives such as breaking up play, halting counter attacks, running down the clock or any commonly associated rule breaks that officials won’t tolerate with a team ahead in a match. Even so, the 2.29 cards on average they have got per game is still way ahead of that of Middlesbrough.

Although this may be a game that is initially close to begin with, and patience will be the name of the game, but once the net bulges then anything could happen here. The opening goal is everything knowing that it will spark a reaction from the opposing team to really push for an equaliser.

In turn, it would keep the door ajar for the team ahead to have spaces to expose for a second potentially. After all, this is a West Brom team who are the joint-fourth highest scorers in the Championship, plus Middlesbrough sit top of the xGF league tally, so they’ll create chances for sure.

Although there hasn’t necessarily been a plethora of goals this season in matches involving these two, that was also the case last season but it didn’t stop the last head-to-head meeting at The Hawthorns containing six goals. Both play a very similar style and although sometimes those sort of matches sees one cancel the other out, it can also crescendo into a goal-fest. Over a year ago, Albion defeated Boro 4-2, and the feeling is something similar cannot be ruled out here.