Gerry Francis: Albion can beat the big guns

From the start of November until mid-December, the Baggies face trips to Manchester United, West Ham and Liverpool, interspersed with home matches against Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

Yet Francis feels the results against top teams towards the end of last season will stand them in good stead for the tough period.

He said: "This is my 15th year in the Premier League so that's just normal stuff.

"That's why this is probably the hardest league in the world to win and maybe the strongest league in Europe, it's certainly one of the strongest.

"You have to take points from those games if you want to stay in it.

"It's strange – last year we played Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City at the end of the season.

"Sometimes you beat the teams you're not expected to and don't get anything against the sides people think you should beat.

"We won at Manchester United and we beat Chelsea so you never know what's going to happen but we know we have to pick up points."

Meanwhile, defender Gareth McAuley admits the Baggies needs to find a balance between defence and attack.

The 35-year-old has built an important relationship at the back with fellow Northern Irishman Jonny Evans this season, helping Tony Pulis' miserly team keep five clean sheets already.

McAuley said: "The gaffer doesn't hide it, he prides himself on his teams being solid. The more clean sheets we can get, the more points we'll have at the end of the day is what he preaches to us.

"We've got to buy into it, but we need to find a balance. When we played Villa we were as good as we have been in doing that.

"We're a little bit disappointed with the home form, but saying that we've taken on two of the so-called top four.

"We're building slowly and by no means are we the finished article."