defensive meltdown against Everton when they visit
Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew still expects West Brom to
be difficult to break down in Saturday's Premier League clash
despite Tony Pulis' men shipping three goals last time out.
West Brom looked to be on their way to a third win in four
matches against Everton on Monday as goals from Saido
Berahino and Craig Dawson put them 2-0 up.
However, Pulis' side collapsed in the second half and were
undone by former loanee Romelu Lukaku, who scored two goals
and set up another to give Everton a 3-2 win.
The nature of that defeat was surprising with West Brom having
kept clean sheets in each of their last three league outings.
Pardew, though, is not reading too much into that result and is
wary of a team that claimed a 2-0 victory at Selhurst Park in
April in last season's corresponding fixture.
"It is a difficult test for us because Tony knows a good portion of
our squad and he knows me well," Pardew said. "He knows I will
try to attack him, and therefore his game plan will be to stop us.
"When you look at his record – 14 clean sheets in 2015 – he's
pretty good at it, so we'll have to find a way [to break West
Brom down].
"Last year they deservedly won here, they stopped us, their
game plan was good. Two set play goals, we need to learn from
that and get ourselves a victory. They're very organised and
disciplined.
"The whole team has to defend, that's a requirement under
Tony. Therefore the distances between the units are not big, so
it's hard to get through them. They have good knowledge and
experienced plays, they are tough."
Palace are still without Connor Wickham and Joel Ward due to
knocks while Mile Jedinak (hamstring) and Damien Delaney
(groin) will not feature. Striker Marouane Chamakh has a
hamstring injury.
Pulis, who steered Palace away from relegation in 2013-14, has
not been helped by injuries to centre halves Jonas Olsson
(ankle) and Gareth McAuley (calf).
Despite those issues, captain Darren Fletcher believes West
Brom are capable of immediately responding to the loss to
Everton.
"There's always games to bounce back and our away form has
been good, so let's go and try to continue that," Fletcher told
West Brom's official website.
"We had a good win at Crystal Palace last season. It's the
Premier League, you've got to brush off disappointment.
"Confidence is important so we'll keep level-headed and pick
ourselves up quickly and prepare for Palace."
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