[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Top of the league and scoring for fun, the benchmark has been set high by Valerian's Albion these early weeks, and is not far off being matched by Saturday's hosts, Blackburn Rovers. With wins over Swansea and ten-man Forest alongside a draw against Millwall, Tony Mowbray has made a positive start to his fifth season at Ewood Park in the hope of building on their mid-table finishes since returning to the Championship. Though not quite the free-scorers that Mowbray made of Albion, Blackburn carry a goal-threat through the unlikely British-Chilean cult hero Ben Brereton, and have some star quality in defence in the form of ex-Liverpool man Daniel Ayala.

What this adds up to is a high likelihood of the usual tough encounter for the Baggies at Ewood. Our last visit, part of the summer 2020 promotion charge under Bilic, was a 1-1 stalemate; Big Dave sank to a 2-1 defeat the season before, and you have to go back nearly a decade to our most recent triumph, when Hodgson guided us to a last-gasp 2-1 win at Christmas 2011, our only three points at Blackburn in the last thirty years. High time we went looking for three more...