West Bromwich Albion won’t be entering the New Year sitting top of the table despite holding the first place for the majority of the Championship season so far.

The Baggies slumped to just their second defeat of the season but in doing so, handed Leeds United the chance to retake control at the summit.

Both teams will meet each other later this week with the potential to open up a three-point gap to begin the new decade.

Albion were beaten 2-0 at the Hawthorns by Middlesbrough on Sunday afternoon so Slaven Bilic will need to make improvements quite quickly.

Daniel Ayala headed home a Lewis Wing cross in the 17th minute before striker Ashley Fletcher clinched all three points with a stunning strike in injury time.

The home support wasn’t best pleased following the match with several fans taking to Twitter to share their thoughts as Matt Phillips took most of the flak.

‘Very lethargic’ and ‘woefully out of form’ were just two phrases used to describe how the 28-year-old has been performing in recent matches while one went as far as comparing him to his form in their relegation season, claiming he was hiding from passes and running down blind alleys.

It has led to many asking the question to why Chris Willock isn’t even involved in the matchday squad, especially with Grady Diangana out injured…

Willock was signed on deadline day by Bilic but is yet to feature for the senior side despite impressing in the U23 setup. He has bagged four and assisted five in just ten Premier League 2 appearances, per Transfermarkt.

If the 21-year-old isn’t introduced then others would like to see some sort of movement in the transfer window, which reopens in a matter of days.

One member of the Hawthorns faithful asked that Phillips and Kyle Edwards were replaced while another was less harsh and merely wanted some injection of pace and energy to come in and liven up the wide position.

The Scottish winger is currently Albion’s joint-top scorer with seven league goals so maybe this run of form is just a blip, but Bilic will need to find a solution fast as failure to see off Leeds this week will give them a monumental boost towards their title hopes while the Baggies’ could come crashing down.

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And in other West Brom news, this summer signing is proving to be a long way off playing anytime soon…