Boss says Villa derby - not Chelsea drama - should be in focus
STEVE Clarke says Albion minds must begin to focus on Monday week's eagerly-awaited derby date with Villa (ko 8pm) – insisting it is time to draw a line under Saturday’s controversial 2-2 draw at Chelsea.
The Baggies have 12 days to prepare for the visit of the Claret and Blues and will be buoyed by the return of the club’s international contingent well in advance of the West Midlands affair.
Jonas Olsson, Diego Lugano, Shane Long, Matej Vydra and Saido Berahino will all be representing their countries over the coming days but will report for Albion duty in plenty of time for the Villa clash.
“I don’t think you can linger and look backwards for too long in the Barclays Premier League,” said Clarke.
“We don’t get some of the players back for a while and our next game is against Villa, which is a great game at home.
“We’ll take all the good bits from the Chelsea game and look forward to what should be a good derby game.
“It’s not until a week on Monday, so at least when the players come back from international duty, we’ll have three of four days together to prepare for the next game.”