Pulis jibe over Villa spending

West Brom head coach Tony Pulis fired a broadside at Aston Villa and their significant transfer spending after his side were held to a dour 0-0 draw in the Midlands derby.

Villa had the better of a game that featured few chances at The Hawthorns, but Pulis took the opportunity to have a dig at the team his side beat 1-0 at Villa Park earlier in the season.

West Brom have won just once since the turn of the year, but Pulis was satisfied to have played Villa twice and avoided defeat, saying: "I've got respect for every team in this league. Aston Villa have spent £84million on that squad and they've got some good players.

"We've played them twice and they've not scored a goal against us and we've taken four points," said Pulis, whose side are 15 points ahead of Villa.

"As a manager, if you'd said at the beginning of the season they would spend that much money and we were going to be that far ahead of them at this stage I'd be doing summersaults."

West Brom failed to register a shot on target and Pulis admitted that £12m striker Salomon Rondon may be in need of a rest.

He added: "Salomon looked tired. We've given Salomon blood tests to have a look at him. He feels tired. I just think and I keep saying it's a different type of football that he's playing.

"He's playing week in, week out. He needs this season to get used to it. He's got real quality and real talent, and his running stats are fantastic. He might just need a couple of weeks off."

Pulis added: "When things are not going well, what you need your team to do is work and work and work and that's what they've done. They've ground a result out, and sometimes you need to do that."