West Brom boss Slaven Bilic happy with pole position

The Baggies head coach insists that while he is aware there is a long way to go in the race for automatic promotion, there is nothing wrong in taking pride in being top of the pile going into the festive fixtures.

In the last decade, only Leeds have failed to gain promotion after being in top spot at Christmas – after being knocked out in the play-off semi-finals by Derby last season.

Baggies sit top with 50 points from their 23 games – three ahead of Leeds and 11 clear of the third-placed Sheffield Wednesday, the closest of the sides currently in the play-off positions.

“It’s been good, it’s been really good, to be fair,” said Bilic.

“Good results, good football; there’s been a good atmosphere, and we’ve made good progress.”

However, the Croatian sounded a word of caution, stating “But there’s still a long way to go and we have to continue to work hard. I can’t hide it, I’m happy with the way we’re playing in the majority of the games, of course.

“We are taking more control of games without losing that spark.

“At the moment we have a good squad and we are in a good position, we have good players, and we have players who are in good form, not just one.

“We are defending as a team, we are scoring as a team, and we don’t depend on one player.

“On the other hand we have great individuals who can decide the games when they are tight.”

He continued: “We are in a good situation and we don’t have to hide it. I always say that we have to know what brought us this privilege. It’s come from us working hard.

“We are still a team that can progress a lot and improve a lot, and we are doing that in training. I’m quite pleased.”