That's the best chance so far. Patrick van Aanholt plays a nice give-and-go and threads the ball through to Jermain Defoe, who turns elusively and shoots just wide from a narrow angle.

Tony Brown
Former West Brom striker on BBC WM 95.6

“You can see a lot of indecisiveness in the Sunderland defence, they look like they might panic if Albion get the first goal, West Brom need to keep up the pressure and try to force mistakes.”     

Image source, Reuters

Lovely touch from Darren Fletcher to bring down Craig Dawson's high cross, but when he tries to release the ball, Fabio Borini is there tracking back industriously. That was appreciated by the Stadium of Light crowd.

Lovely touch from Khazri frees DeAndre Yedlin to rampage down the right and his cross is acrobatically hooked goalward by Fabio Borini. Didn't really test Ben Foster, but lovely stuff from Sunderland.

Image source, Reuters

Tony Brown
Former West Brom striker on BBC WM 95.6

“West Brom have started on the front foot, Tony Pulis will be pleased with the start but they have got to make sure they don’t leave too much space at the back and make a mistake.”     

Jermain Defoe with his own Jamie Vardy tribute act! Cross from the right by Wahbi Khazri and Defoe tries the same sort of backheel flick that Vardy scored with against Germany. It's well held by Ben Foster.

Sunderland overplay at the back and Yann M'Vila serves the ball straight to Sandro. He belts it over the bar.

Ouch. Fabio Borini treads on the back of Saido Berahino's ankle and West Brom have a free-kick. Craig Gardner's delivery is poor though, and is easily headed clear.

Sunderland pour forward from the kick-off, win a throw-in, and from that the ball bobbles to Patrick van Aanholt, who gets an early shot off. It's blocked though.

We're under way.

Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce enjoy a little cuddle. Referee fans, Roger East is today's man in the middle.

The players are out on the pitch. Looks like both in their traditional colours today.

Dion Dublin
Former Leicester and Aston Villa forward on Final Score

"It has got to be so frustrating for Sunderland's fans to see their side play so well but throw points away. 

"But, for me, they are still the team that will finish above Newcastle and Norwich."  

Any positive result today will take West Brom to the "magic 40-point mark" generally considered a guarantee of avoiding relegation, but manager Tony Pulis says the Baggies can set their sights higher than that.

"If we can get to that magic 40 points as quick as possible, we can then push on from there," he said.

"Every place in this league is more money. The players have that pride to finish as high as possible too."

Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce says the defence need to tighten up if the Black Cats are to stay up.

"It's been very disappointing for me that the players have not achieved the clean sheets that they should have done," he said.

"We can certainly score a goal, but the way we're playing at the moment, it's two minimum to win a game."

Image source, Getty Images

Sadly for Sunderland - and indeed for all fans of the beautiful game - there will be no sightings of Emmanuel Eboue at the Stadium of Light.

The former Arsenal full-back completed a free transfer to Sunderland on 9 March, but was sacked just 22 days later for failing to pay money to a former agent.

Oh Emmanuel.

Image source, BBC Sport

Reckon you can do better than Lawro? Make your predictions using the BBC Sport Predictor game here.

Mark Lawrenson
Former Liverpool defender on Football Focus

"I'm going for 1-1. Sunderland have taken the lead in their last three games but only picked up three points.

If they go ahead again this weekend, I don't see West Brom lying down either, especially after losing at home to Norwich in their last game."