West Bromwich Albion will be determined to make the perfect start to the 2022/23 campaign by securing all three points in their showdown with Middlesbrough on Saturday in the Championship.
Ahead of their trip to the Riverside Stadium, the Baggies have managed to make some alterations to their squad this summer.
John Swift, Jed Wallace and Okay Yokuslu are all set to feature for West Brom in the new term after sealing permanent moves to The Hawthorns.
As well as engaging in some transfer activity, the Baggies recently reached a fresh agreement with Dara O'Shea.
The defender, who has attracted interest from Burnley in the current transfer window, signed a contract extension last week which will keep him at the club until 2025.
After making an encouraging start to the previous campaign, O'Shea missed a chunk of action due to a serious ankle injury that he suffered on international duty with the Republic of Ireland.
The 23-year-old made his return to action in February and went on to feature on nine occasions during the second half of the season.
Making reference to O'Shea's fresh agreement, Carlton Palmer has admitted that this is a big boost for the Baggies.
Speaking to Football League World, Palmer said: "It's a big boost for them, he's a very, very good young player.
"Unfortunately last season he didn't play a lot of football because of a fracture.
"The season before he was one of their star performers and one of the best defenders in the league so it's important that they tied him down to a new deal and the one thing that you wouldn't have wanted to lose him to was to a side that is going to be, you would think that Burnley would be at the top end of the table.
"So you wouldn't want to be losing one of your better players to a straight forward competitor so yeah, it's great news for West Brom to tie Dara down to a new deal."
The Verdict
Palmer makes a good point regarding O'Shea as West Brom definitely wouldn't have wanted to see the defender seal a move to Burnley this summer.
In the 14 league games that he featured in for the Baggies last season, the defender illustrated that he is more than capable of delivering the goods at this level.
O'Shea made 1.5 tackles and 1.4 interceptions per fixture and won 4.6 aerial duels per game as he averaged an impressive WhoScored match rating of 7.09 in the Championship.
Providing that he doesn't suffer another injury setback in the current term, O'Shea could go on to play a key role for Albion as they aim to launch a push for promotion.