Press Conference Update: Moyes on Allardyce transfer links & Anichebe has slim chance of return to West Brom

The Baggies

Much like last week's opponents, Stoke City, West Brom have consolidated their position in the Premier League since promotion in 2011 and surpassed Sunderland in most measures.

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The Baggies are pushing for a top-half finish this season - currently lying eighth in the Premier League - are largely debt-free having been taken over last year. West Brom will be seeking to rubber-stamp an impressive season, by getting themselves back on track tomorrow, following a hammering last week by Tottenham.

On that note, David Moyes praised their showing so far this campaign, saying:

West Brom have done a good job and they're starting to chase the teams above them.

Tony Pulis has been active in the transfer window already and has landed Jake Livermore in a £10m deal and has been strongly linked with striker Odion Ighalo from West Ham for a fee above £15m.

The Baggies boss has converted some of the West Midlands doubters who were unconvinced he could switch his relegation-survival battling persona into one with a little more swashbuckle to launch an assault on the Premier League top ten. Pulis is looking good for at least a top-half finish to build on last season's 40-point-plus showing.

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David Moyes said he is expecting a tough trip to the Hawthorns as he locks horns with Tony Pulis again. The Sunderland boss said about his opposite number tomorrow:

I've been coming up against Tony for what feels like a hundred years! He was at Gillingham when I was at Preston, so we've been around.

Transfer News

According to David Moyes, we can discount pretty much all of the players we've been linked with in the last week or so. The Sunderland boss said:

We've been linked with four or five players this week and I can tell you that none of them are the ones we're in for.

The transfer gossip in recent days has continued to centre around Sunderland's midfield with Montpellier's attacking Algerian, Ryad Boudebouz, the most recent link coming out of France. We can likely discount any interest from David Moyes in that one and any others we've heard of late.

Headlines continue to be written suggesting Sam Allardyce is set to raid his former club for the pick of Sunderland's defenders. Big Sam has been linked with Patrick van Aanholt repeatedly and is also said to fancy his chances of landing Lamine Kone.

David Moyes squashed speculation about his players which continues to come out of the Crystal Palace camp and said he is unaware of any interest in any of his players from his predecessor at the Stadium of Light.

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The Sunderland boss continues to bemoan his lack of squad options and again remarked that ordinarily, with a full compliment of players, some of those who have let him down in recent weeks would have been dropped:

We've made some mistakes recently, and normally if a player does that they won't play, but we don't have the resources to do that.

For one, Moyes suggested during the week that Papy Djilobodji's recent displays have left him with some doubts over the Senegalese defender's form.

On the topic of reinforcements, David Moyes continues his message to dampen expectations and warned he has precious little funds to play with. This time he revealed Sunderland's transfer budget is "limited with a capital 'L'".

Injury Update & Team News

Jordan Pickford will see a specialist on Tuesday, so expect more news on the progress of Sunderland's young goalkeeper next week. In the mean time, Vito Mannone will almost certainly continue between the sticks at the Hawthorns.

The Italian needs to put in a decent performance to win over doubters after his most recent displays. On current form, Pickford would waltz straight back in to the starting spot in goal.

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Jack Rodwell was missing from the trip to Turf Moor on Tuesday night. The midfielder should be Okay for tomorrow though after David Moyes said a scan on his knee revealed no damage.

A glimmer of hope perhaps is that Victor Anichebe has a chance of being in the squad for West Brom.

The man mountain has been a stark miss for Sunderland during his most recent lay-off and it's little coincidence that David Moyes' side have struggled to impose themselves in games.

Moyes suggested it's a slim prospect at present that we might see Anichebe tomorrow, but it's one we'll grasp. The Nigerian hitman was most recently at West Brom before Sunderland picked him up in the summer after Tony Pulis released him.

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Steven Pienaar is the other player who may make the trip to the West Midlands, the veteran midfielder has an outside chance of being in the squad.

Javier Manquillo picked up a calf injury on Tuesday night. Moyes revealed the Spaniard who is on loan this season at the Stadium of Light is waiting on the results of a scan before he can assess his availability.