West Brom v Chelsea preview: David Luiz returns to Blues squad

Chelsea will return to the scene where they won the Premier League title last season as they take on struggling West Brom on Saturday.

Baggies boss Tony Pulis has admitted he's under pressure after a poor start to the season.

Pulis, whose West Brom side are winless in their last nine, has lost 12 Premier League games as a manager against Chelsea, including the last two meetings at The Hawthorns.

Meanwhile, Chelsea are nine points off Manchester City in the title race but got a morale-boosting success against Manchester United in the last round of fixtures.

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Team news

Nacer Chadli and James Morrison have been ruled out for West Brom.

Belgium international Chadli has suffered a hip injury and could be out for a number of weeks, with Pulis unhappy he played twice for Belgium during the international break.

Morrison has undergone surgery on his Achilles and no return date has been set for the Scotland international, who has played just six times this season.

David Luiz is in the squad for Chelsea's Premier League clash at West Brom following his tactical omission against Manchester United prior to the international break.

Striker Michy Batshuayi (ankle) is out and forward Charly Musonda (knee) is also expected to be missing on Saturday, but defender Gary Cahill (back) and midfielder Danny Drinkwater (calf) are fit following knocks.

Right wing-back Victor Moses is about a week away from training as he recuperates from a hamstring injury.

Opta stats

• West Brom have lost 16 games against Chelsea in the Premier League, their joint-highest total against an opponent alongside Arsenal and Manchester City.
• After failing to win in four visits to The Hawthorns between 2012-2015 (W0 D1 L3), Chelsea have since won back-to-back games there, including last May when Michy Batshuayi scored to seal the title in a 1-0 victory.
• This will be Antonio Conte's 50th Premier League game in charge of Chelsea, with the reigning champions winning more points (115) than any other side since the start of last season.
• Conte has the best win percentage of any permanent Chelsea manager in league history (75.5%).
• Chelsea have won nine of their last 11 away games in the Premier League, losing 0-2 at Old Trafford in April and 1-2 Selhurst Park in October.
• The Baggies have won just twice in their last 20 Premier League games (W2 D6 L12) and are winless in their last nine.
• Alvaro Morata has been directly involved in 10 goals in his first 10 Premier League games for Chelsea (seven goals, three assists) - only Diego Costa (11) had more goal involvements in his first 10 for the club.

Paul Merson's prediction

There is a lot of pressure on West Brom, but Chelsea need to win as well. I am going to go for Chelsea, although I think it will be a hard game. I know they [West Brom] have not won in a while, everybody away on international duty coming back… I saw Chelsea win the league there last year and it was a tricky game and I make it another difficult game this week.

PAUL PREDICTS: 1-2 (Sky Bet odds 15/2)

Betting

Chelsea are priced 8/13 to win at West Brom this weekend, with the hosts 19/4 to win and 14/5 for a draw. Alvaro Morata is the favourite to score first, at 11/4, while Salomon Rondon, Jay Rodriguez and Hal Robson-Kanu are all 7/1 for the visitors.

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