INNOVATION FOR SEASON 2005-06: THE 35-game Barclays Premiership. Away fixtures against Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United do not count: they shall be considered automatic defeats. That was certainly the impression you got from Bryan Robson when the West Bromwich Albion manager took his team to Stamford Bridge last week and duly lost, 4-0. Everyone had predicted defeat, but few expected Robson to pick the side that he did. Robson made five changes to the team that beat — beat! — Portsmouth the previous Saturday. Geoff Horsfield’s reward for scoring twice was to be rested, along with Darren Carter, Zoltan Gera, Steve Watson and Kevin Campbell.

“It’s impossible for your players to recover 100 per cent for a Saturday lunchtime game after playing on Wednesday. I had that in mind,” Robson said after the match. And what happened to the super-fresh, motivated, first-choice West Bromwich on Saturday? They played badly and lost at home to Birmingham City.

I admire Robson for keeping West Bromwich in the Premiership but it’s sad that a manager who brilliantly upset the odds should be so intent on playing them this season. He’s not alone: this is a disturbing trend. Martin Jol put Jermain Defoe on the bench for Tottenham Hotspur’s midweek match with Blackburn Rovers. Result: two points dropped in a draw and Chelsea still beat Tottenham on Saturday.

One day, a club will bend the rules to breaking point by cancelling a fixture on the basis that, since they were bound to lose anyway, they might as well give their players a rest and ensure they don’t pick up any bookings or injuries. It may be a coward’s way out, but at least it’s honest. As it happened, West Bromwich would have been better off staying at home and forfeiting the Chelsea match 3-0.

A club with such a deep squad as Chelsea is a different matter, but for a lowly team such as West Bromwich, not picking your strongest side against the big guns sends out all kinds of bad messages. If managers do not choose their best players against the top clubs, how will they, or we, know how good they really are? A player hasn’t proved himself at the top level if he’s only ever exposed to mid-ranking Premiership sides.

As managers get more selective, so will fans. Supporters will increasingly pick and choose games, so attendances will go down even for the most attractive fixtures. Fans of clubs such as West Bromwich should be thrilled about the chance to watch them play at the home of the champions. Instead, they’re thinking: why should I spend half the day and pay £48 to watch our reserves get thrashed? You can guarantee that the players hate the policy. Playing against the top clubs is the fulfilment of a dream. One of my favourite memories is the day that Millwall drew with Liverpool in 1988. Touching the “This is Anfield” sign in the tunnel. Hitting the woodwork in front of the Kop. If I had been denied the privilege of playing at Anfield because the manager wanted to save me for the week after, I would have been distraught.

And I’m not quite sure why the modern, super-fit Premiership player needs a rest in August. It is certain that if the Chelsea fixture had fallen in April, and West Bromwich were desperately scrapping for survival, Robson would have played his best side and not used a 4-5-1 formation. But a draw counts for as much at the start of the season as at the end. Back in September 2003, Portsmouth took the game to Arsenal at Highbury and emerged with great credit and a point.

A big reason Robson’s team are still in the top flight is that in the penultimate game last season he courageously went to Old Trafford, played three forwards and West Bromwich went on to secure a draw. Yes, a lesser side are almost certain to lose to Chelsea no matter whom they pick, but there’s always hope — unless you pick a line-up that screams “we will lose” even before a ball’s been kicked. For the good of the game, managers ought not to go into fixtures thinking about damage limitation. Shock results do occur, even in a league so polarised as the Premiership, but you have to believe you can make them happen.

The long-term consequences of teams calculatedly and pessimistically playing the percentages when they look at the fixture list are grim. It reinforces the sense that this is truly a two or three-tier league. If some managers decide it’s not worth seriously competing against the top sides, really taking the game to them and giving the best performance possible, then what is the point of being in the Premiership? And what is the point of watching?

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