Pick of the stats: West Bromwich Albion v Birmingham City

West Bromwich Albion welcome Birmingham City for a West Midlands derby in the Championship on Saturday lunchtime (kick-off 12:30 BST). It will be a second local derby in a row for the Baggies, who are hoping to bounce back from a 1-0 defeat at Wolves before the international break. Blues have won just one of their past five games (D3 L1), but drew with promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough last time out, and will want to keep pace with the early frontrunners. West Bromwich Albion have won one of their past seven league games against Birmingham City (D2 L4), a 1-0 home win in February 2024. Since the start of the 2000-01 season, Birmingham City have two wins in their 13 away league matches against West Brom (D5 L6), winning 3-2 in both in 2005-06 and 2022-23. Since James Morrison's first league game in charge on February 28, West Brom are one of only two ever-present Championship teams without a home defeat (W4 D6), along with Southampton, with the Saints the only side with more home points (26) than the Baggies (18) in that time. Birmingham have drawn more Championship games than any other side this season (5) – it's the fourth time they've had this many draws after eight league games in a campaign, along with 1965-66 (5), 1980-81 (5) and 2018-19 (6). Liam Millar has been involved in four goals in his previous three Championship appearances for Birmingham (1 goal, 3 assists) – across their past three matches, the only Blues goal Millar hasn't either scored or assisted was a Riley McGree own goal in the 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough.