West Brom’s survival hopes dented after Anelka is sacked

The scandal hanging over Nicolas Anelka regarding the striker’s ‘quenelle’ gesture celebration reached a dramatic conclusion after the Frenchman was sacked by West Brom ahead of a crucial Premier League fixture at Swansea.

The suspended Anelka was due to start a five-game ban following the FA hearing which had also led to an £80,000 fine for the player.

However, irreconcilable differences between the player and the club over the controversial gesture led Anelka to use Twitter to announce he would be leaving the Baggies “with immediate effect”.

West Brom’s response was swift, as they labelled Anelka’s attempts to terminate his own contract as invalid and in light of the player’s refusal to accept responsibility for the gesture, then terminated his contract by serving him 14
days notice for gross misconduct.

Hovering just one place above the drop zone only by goal difference, the Baggies are in real danger of going down, where Ladbrokes price them as 21/10-shots ahead of their next fixture against Swansea.

Although Anelka would have only been available for the final five fixtures of the season, losing such a proven Premier League goal scorer from their squad can only be considered more glum news for manager Pepe Mel.

Since taking over from Steve Clarke, the Spaniard has failed to record a single victory from his first league seven games in charge and with only 10 games left to play time is running short to start picking up the right results.

Next up is a game against another managerial freshman, Garry Monk ,as West Brom travel to Wales where a win at the
Liberty would close the gap on 14th-place Swansea to just a point.

That task is rated at 10/3 by Ladbrokes, for a Baggies side with only a solitary away win in the league all season.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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