Bristol City climbed into the top six with a 2-1 Boxing Day win at West Bromwich Albion, surviving a late onslaught after early goals from Anis Mehmeti and Ross McCrorie put them in command at The Hawthorns. Ousmane Diakite's 85th-minute header set up a tense finale before Karlan Grant crashed a stoppage-time effort against the bar, but the Robins clung on to inflict Albion's first home defeat in eight matches and claim back-to-back wins, while the hosts slipped to successive losses.
Yet the numbers painted a very different picture to the scoreline. Ryan Mason's side produced 16 shots, 64.5% of the possession and an expected-goals figure of 2.36 compared with City's 0.74, mirroring last week's pattern when Gerhard Struber's team beat Middlesbrough 2-0 despite Boro enjoying 71.5% possession and 28 attempts on goal.
Contentious opener sets the tone
City struck in the fourth minute, moments after Mikey Johnston had driven a deflected effort into the side-netting at the other end. Neto Borges slipped a short pass into Mehmeti 20 yards out and the forward rolled a low shot on the turn into the bottom corner for his seventh goal of the season, with goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith appearing rooted to the spot.