Summary
As if they needed telling, West Bromwich Albion's trip to the capital for the second time in five days sums up the monumental size of their battle against relegation. Tuesday night at Stamford Bridge was a 'freebie' - a 'nolose' situation. Albion's attacking formation acquitted themselves nobly against the Premiership leaders, knowing all along that they did not stand a chance. Today comes the hard part - a trip to The Valley to take on Charlton Athletic. Seventh in the Premiership against 19th, with 22 points between them. But one Albion are this time expected to win. It's not the form book that so encourages hopes of victory at The Valley, though. It's the Baggies' sheer need to register a first away win of the season. There is only a five-point gap separating Bryan Robson's men from safety - effectively six points, given the Baggies' inferior goal difference. But Albion are not the only team in trouble and they know well there will be movement from their rivals too between now and May 15.
'It's frustrating,' said Robson, 'in that you come off a good performance against Birmingham then, all of a sudden, you have Chelseaaway, which is going to be one of your hardest games. 'It would have been nice to have had a fixture where we had a chance to get another result but I look at the second half performance at Chelsea and take heart because it was very good once they got the grasp of how I wanted them to play. 'Now we've got Charlton, a decent, well-organised, disciplined side with some good players who are difficult to break them down. But we need to win a couple of away games between now and the end of the season to give ourselves a realistic chance of survival. And the sooner we get the first one the better.' The big question for Robson is just how gung-ho is he prepared to be entering The Valley? Robson has admitted that, in the first half against Chelsea, his team had been slightly more attack- minded than even he'd hoped they would be - and they had left too many holes at the back, a problem not fixed until the half-time break. But, while Albion were more susceptible in that first period, they did cause Chelsea problems. And Robson spent taken time working out how best to break down Charlton's 4-5-1 formation. 'I've had to study a video of Charlton's win over Spurs on Tuesday night before deciding whether to use the same system again,' he said. 'I felt that what we did at Chelsea was simply the best formation to play. It was not a case of just going for broke'Chelsea have a lot of big defenders and I felt I needed to put strength in there up front and match them for physique. 'Charlton played 4-5-1 when they beat us at our place. 'But that was one game where our players looked nervous for whatever reason. And I feel they're over that side of it now and just go out and play.' It will further ease the Albion players' anxiety that they will have a following well in excess of 2,000. 'It's going to be terrific to take a following like that away from home,' said Robson. 'But the way to really make them enjoy it would beto bring the three points back.See the full content of this document
Extract
Football: Robson Weighs Albion Tactics
'If we can do that, we can put a lot of pressure on the ...
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