Sam Allardyce critical of Premier League scheduling after West Brom request denied

This Baggies were due to take on Leicester this weekend while Villa were supposed to be facing Manchester City.

But those fixtures had to be postponed due to both the Foxes and the Citizens still being involved in the FA Cup.

Albion are now due to face Villa on Sunday, April 25, just three days after their rearranged clash at Leicester.

Dean Smith’s side will have an extra 24 hours to prepare but they still have to play twice in four days after their game with Manchester City was rearranged for April 21.

With the two teams not in action this weekend, both Allardyce and Smith spoke to the Premier League to see if their derby could be played this weekend.

But they were turned down much to the anger of Allardyce who has been left furious with the scheduling of Albion’s fixtures on multiple occasions this season.

Back in February, the boss labelled the body ‘irresponsible’ and ‘disrespectful’ after they sandwiched a re-arranged fixture against Everton in-between two relegation six-pointers against Brighton and Newcastle.

He was also angry this week that the Baggies had to play Southampton on Monday – with the boss believing that put less pressure on Newcastle when they took on, and subsequently beat, Burnley on Sunday.

“Me and Dean Smith wanted to play the Villa game this weekend,” Allardyce said.

“But for some bizarre, unearthly, reason it’s not been allowed.

“Now we have to try and beat Leicester.

“But if we do, because we can’t play this weekend like we wanted to, we have got to hope the teams above us lose and not kill us.

“We wanted to play Aston Villa this weekend.

“Both Dean Smith and I wanted us to play this weekend because we didn’t have a game because the teams we are supposed to be playing are still in the cup.

“And we have not been allowed to which means we have to sit.

“Instead of us putting pressure on the teams above us by playing on Saturday and beating Villa, instead, we are going to have to wait to the following Thursday to play and that is wrong.”

Prior to beating Southampton, Albion secured a morale boosting win at Chelsea – a result which saw them move eight points from safety.

And Allardyce believes there would have been a lot more pressure on Newcastle when they travelled to Burnley on Sunday if the Baggies’s game against Southampton had been rearranged for the Friday before that game instead of the Monday after.

“Based on the fall of the fixtures, if we had played Southampton on Friday night and beaten them 3-0, that would have put added pressure on,” the 66-year-old added.

“The pressure came on us because Newcastle won.

“After beating Chelsea last weekend, you can understand why Newcastle winning could knock the players.

“They could be thinking we have to go again just to get the gap down to eight (points).

“We have got it down to eight again but games are running out.”