As far as opening periods of the season go, West Bromwich Albion are not quite where their fans want them to be.

Six games, four points. Roy Hodgson himself isn’t happy. He feels Albion deserve more, despite a poor opening to their campaign.

The boss accepts his side have yet to scale the heights of last season.

Albion flourished following his arrival back in February.

So far this season they have yet to motor. Three defeats from the opening three games were not perhaps the biggest shock of the campaign.

Fixtures against Manchester United and Chelsea – last season’s top two – produced predictable outcomes.

And, let’s face it, Albion are seemingly destined to never beat Stoke City again. They even managed to throw a 0-0 draw away in the dying moments.

A plucky win against Norwich was followed by a no-show at Swansea and a hard-fought goalless stalemate against Fulham.

Social media, Albion forums and radio phone-ins have been in overdrive. It’s all down to formations, strikers not gelling and all sorts of other reasons.

Hodgson is not panicking just yet. You get the feeling he’s seen much worse during his 36 years as a top-class manager.

He only needs to recall where he was last season.

A few dissenting voices in the Black Country have nothing on one half of Merseyside turning en masse against their own manager simply because he didn’t have a Scottish accent or a miserable demeanour.

“We should have had five points because Stoke was a point lost, which we lost in bizarre circumstances,” said Hodgson.