Two teams with little left to fight for this season will go head to head at The Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon when West Bromwich Albion host Watford.

Just one place and two points separate the sides in the Premier League table, and both clubs look to be safe from the threat of relegation with six games of their season remaining.

West Brom

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As always seems to be the case, Tony Pulis looks to have secured the Premier League status of another team this season having steered West Brom to the 40-point mark.

Survival is not yet mathematically guaranteed, but with Sunderland 13 points adrift, the Baggies can afford to relax over their final six games of the season.

While the pressure of relegation may be off, though, Pulis insisted in the wake of his side's 2-1 defeat to Manchester City last weekend that he would not allow his players to take their foot off the pedal in the closing months of the campaign.

They certainly didn't seem to have their minds on the beach during that match at the Etihad Stadium, taking the lead against the Champions League semi-finalists after just six minutes through a crisp Stephane Sessegnon strike.

Goals from Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri ultimately handed Man City the victory, but Pulis was "pleased" with the display nonetheless and will want to see more of the same - with a better result - this weekend.

That was Pulis's 50th Premier League game in charge of the Baggies, and Sessegnon's strike was just the 50th goal that they have scored in that time, so it is no surprise that West Brom are level with Watford as the second-lowest scorers in the division this season.

The main priority would have always been survival, but with that now almost guaranteed West Brom will set themselves new targets over the closing stages of the season.

A top-half finish would certainly make for a successful campaign, but they are four points adrift of 10th-placed Chelsea and their recent form of just one win in five games suggests that the Baggies may not be able to bridge that gap.

Instead, they may set their sights on beating last season's performance, when they finished 13th with 44 points. They are only four short of that tally this time around, although they do face a tricky end to the season with Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Bournemouth and Liverpool in their last five games.

Saturday's match may be their best chance to grab a victory then, and their home record will give them confidence, with the recent 1-0 loss to Norwich City being their only defeat at The Hawthorns in any competition since before Christmas - a run of nine matches.

Recent form: WDWLDL

Watford

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While West Brom have been in and around the relegation battle for the majority of the season, Watford have been able to breathe pretty easily for some time now.

A fantastic first half of the campaign saw them challenging among the European places, and even their substantial slump in form since Christmas has not raised too many alarm bells.

There is still a bit of work to be done to push the Hornets over the line, with the 40-point mark still two away, but it would take an unlikely series of events for them to be dragged into the mire.

Even so, manager Quique Flores will be unhappy with how his side's league season has tailed off, with just two wins in 15 top-flight matches since they moved to within one point of the top four in their final game before Christmas.

They go into this weekend's contest without a win in more than two months and having picked up only two points from the last 18 available to them.

They did at least manage to stop a run of four straight defeats last weekend, though, as they held Everton to a 1-1 draw at Vicarage Road courtesy of Jose Holebas's deflected header just a minute after James McCarthy had given the visitors the lead in first-half stoppage time.

There could be a repeat of that fixture in the FA Cup final this season, and Flores admitted after the game that his side's continued involvement in the competition was acting as a distraction from their Premier League form.

It will certainly be their priority over the closing stages of the campaign, though, with their semi-final showdown against Crystal Palace at Wembley taking place next weekend.

The Hornets have back-to-back away league games before that, however, and the fact that four of their final six Premier League outings are on the road will be a concern for Flores, who has seen his side lose five of their six Premier League away games in 2016, failing to score in each of those defeats.

Indeed, Watford are the lowest-scoring team in the top flight so far this calendar year with just seven goals, while over the course of the entire season only rock-bottom Aston Villa have found the back of the net on fewer occasions.

Recent form: DLLLLD
Recent form (all competitions): LLWLLD

Team News

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The hosts could be without Salomon Rondon for this game after the striker was forced off just 21 minutes into their match against Man City with a back injury.

He is rated as 50-50 to feature, and the same applies to James Morrison, who has missed more than three months with a hamstring problem but could return to the matchday squad.

Chris Brunt is a long-term absentee, however, having suffered an ACL injury that will also keep him out of this summer's European Championship.

Watford, meanwhile, will be hopeful that Etienne Capoue is able to shake off a knock in time to feature, but Joel Ekstrand, Rene Gilmartin and Tommie Hoban all remain out.

Flores is likely to play as close to a full-strength side as he can in an attempt to get the win that would see his side pass 40 points, giving him the option to rest players in their midweek fixture ahead of next Sunday's FA Cup semi-final.

That means that Odion Ighalo is once again expected to start despite scoring just one goal from his 23 shots in the Premier League this calendar year (4.3% conversion rate), compared to 13 goals from 54 shots in 2015 (24.1%).

West Brom possible starting lineup:
Foster; Dawson, McAuley, Evans, Chester; Sandro, Fletcher, Sessegnon, Berahino, McClean; Rondon

Watford possible starting lineup:
Gomes; Paredes, Cathcart, Britos, Holebas; Behrami, Suarez. Watson, Amrabat; Deeney, Ighalo

Head To Head

The Baggies have dominated this fixture in recent years, going 15 league matches since their last defeat against Watford with eight wins and seven draws in that time.

Watford have beaten West Brom in the FA Cup amid that spell, but you have to go back to 1995 for both their last league victory over the Baggies and their last win at The Hawthorns when they ran out 1-0 victors in the old Division One.

The reverse fixture in August was Watford's first Premier League home game for more than eight years, but it ended goalless at Vicarage Road.

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We say: West Brom 0-0 Watford

Neither side have been particularly impressive recently and they are both amongst the lowest scorers in the division this season, so don't expect goals at The Hawthorns. Watford will have one eye on the FA Cup semi-final and the Baggies have nothing of real note to fight for themselves, so this could end up as a stalemate.

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