When Alan Pardew surveys his next fixtures as the new head coach of West Bromwich Albion, he will see an immediate chance to improve the Baggies’ situation relative to the clubs around them in the bottom half of the table.
Of West Brom’s next eight fixtures over the next four weeks, four are against clubs below their 16th position in the table: Crystal Palace, Swansea City, Everton and West Ham United.
Another is at Stoke City, who are a point and a place above.
The other three matches look much harder on paper, with a trip to Liverpool followed swiftly by a home match with Manchester United before travelling to Arsenal on New Year's Eve.
Pardew also has history of making a positive immediate impact on his new clubs. In his first five Premier League matches at Charlton Athletic, he earned seven points, while at Newcastle he won nine.
At Palace Pardew won three and drew one of his first five matches with the Eagles.
According to the Fixture Difficulty Rankings (FDR), that calculates the difficulty of fixtures, the average rating of West Brom's next seven opponents is a favourable 2.75, giving Pardew a great opportunity to get off to another flying start.
West Brom’s festive run
| MW | Date | Opponent | FDR |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 2 Dec | Crystal Palace (H) | 2 |
| 16 | 9 Dec | Swansea (A) | 2 |
| 17 | 13 Dec | Liverpool (A) | 4 |
| 18 | 17 Dec | Man Utd (H) | 4 |
| 19 | 23 Dec | Stoke (A) | 2 |
| 20 | 26 Dec | Everton (H) | 2 |
| 21 | 31 Dec | Arsenal (H) | 4 |
| 22 | 2 Jan | West Ham (A) | 2 |