Premier League preview: QPR v West Brom

West Bromwich Albion will be hoping that a favourable run of fixtures can propel them up the Premier League table.

Roy Hodgson’s side travel to Loftus Road to face Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, with the match coming ahead of games against the league’s bottom two sides in Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers.

The Baggies lost 3-1 to Tottenham on Saturday but played well in patches and will be hoping their form – which has been better than the 14th place they currently occupy on the table – will be rewarded over the coming weeks.

Hodgson will be without midfielder Zoltan Gera after injuring his knee but the former Liverpool and Fulham manager is counting on Northern Ireland midfielder Chris Brunt – who has scored three goals on his last three matches at QPR – to shoulder the responsibility as West Brom look to make the most of their upcoming matches.

“I’ve got a couple of grounds like that in my career,” Blunt told the club’s official website.

“Loftus Road is never an easy place to go to being a tight ground and the atmosphere is always pretty hot. They’ve started the season well as a newly-promoted side after adding a lot of new faces in the summer.”

“The important part for us is that we continued our performance from the Bolton win, so we can take some confidence from that. We’re playing well so we need to go there and keep doing the things we’ve done in the last two games – and hopefully it will click for us again.”

“We’ve got a few games coming up now where we can get a few points. But I’m sure all the other teams we’re playing will be saying the same thing.”

QPR also lost on the weekend, going down 2-1 at Carrow Road against Norwich City.

They are missing first-choice goalkeeper Paddy Kenny through injury and with reserve shot-stopper Brian Murphy also missing due to a calf complaint, third-choice keeper Radek Cerny will be called on again.

Neil Warnock’s side have won just once at home this season and they will need the free-scoring Heidar Helguson to be at the top of his game if they are to claim all three points.