Tony Pulis: West Brom are not safe yet

Ronald Koeman manager of Southampton is greeted by West Bromwich Albion boss Tony Pulis

Tony Pulis refuses to accept that Albion are as good as safe.

“I won’t answer questions like that,” he said. “Let’s get to 39-40 points and then I’ll be doing somersaults with the rest of you.

“The problem is you only need to lose a couple and then a couple of results go against you and suddenly you are looking over your shoulder.

“The most important thing is to keep looking forward and keep doing things the right way and also pray that things go for you.”

Albion hold an eight point cushion over the bottom three which becomes effectively a nine point gap due to a far superior goal difference.

When Pulis took charge Albion had taken just 17 points from 19 games and were just a point clear of the bottom three.

Pulis admits he’d have gladly taken Albion’s current position had it been offered to him just a few weeks ago.

Pulis has recorded three wins and four draws in his eight League games in charge.

“Would I have taken it? Definitely, but there’s still a long way to go,” said Pulis.

Albion have now recorded 11 clean sheets - including four in the League under Pulis - more than at any time in their Premier League history.

It’s already four more than last season’s haul and in the years previous to that Albion recorded eight, ten, two, eight, ten and seven and six clean sheets.

“The important thing is that everybody recognises that whether we’ve got the ball or we haven’t got it that they all have to work together,” said Pulis.

“They know what’s needed and they’ve become closer together so we hope we can keep that going.

“We’ve got people playing out of position who are doing brilliant jobs for us and we haven’t got the array of strikers that we really need.”

Albion head to Villa with the chance of inflicting a third league double on their rivals but they have injury doubts over all three of their strikers.

“The most important thing for us is to find out who is fit and who isn’t,” Pulis said.

“It’s a massive game for the area, never mind the position that both clubs are in.

“It’s a massive game and we’re expecting tough time.

“I’ve got a lot of time for Tim Sherwood.

“I think he’s a good coach and I think he’s a good manager and I’m sure he will be a success.

"He just needs the time there to turn it around. I think Villa have appointed a really top man.”