West Bromwich Albion achieved their first ever top ten finish in the Premier League after what was a solid trouble-free campaign that saw Pulis’ men existing in the top ten pretty much all throughout. In fact the Baggies spent 20 weeks of this season in 8th place and for a time it seemed that they would finish there, but in the end just two points collected from their last nine matches saw them slipping a bit.
Coach Pulis was on the verge of being sacked in August after failing for the third transfer window in a row to strengthen the squad properly, but still he added to the small group Nyom and Chadli, with both of them having really bright spells later in the year. What saved the manager in the early months was the solid start to the season that saw West Brom winning only two of their opening eight matches, but also losing just two of these fixtures. True to their nature and strengths the Baggies continued to be very compact defensively and also effective from set pieces at the other end.
The steady displays continued in the winter and with six wins in the ten rounds between November and the beginning of January the mid-table finish looked pretty much guaranteed. West Brom showed great efficiency against those sitting below them and thanks to constantly solid results on home turf they looked destined to finish in the top half of the table from very early on. The one concern for the gaffer after the busy festive period was that the form of his main striker Rondon dropped and the Venezuelan went on an eighteen-game goalless run before eventually ending his drought in April. This was probably the main reason why the results declined after February.
The other reason for the nine-game winless run with which the season was finished was the fact that the point tally was already great and West Brom had a guaranteed mid-table finish ever since round 29 when they beat Arsenal 3:1. All campaign the defenders were playing very well and all of Dawson, Evans and McAuley also scored plenty of goals from set pieces. Especially the 37-year-old veteran McAuley was enjoying every minute on the pitch this year and he ended the campaign with the career-high six goals to his name.
