Phil Sumbler
It’s Saturday on Planet Swans which can only mean one thing – it’s matchday and time to look forward to this afternoon’s clash with Sunderland.
The Swans will be looking to return to winning ways when they entertain Sunderland this afternoon. The away win at Blackburn last weekend has cancelled out some of the frustration that would have been felt after the back to back home defeats to Watford and Leicester but a maximum return this afternoon feels essential especially when your factor in that the last game of this mini series of games looks a tough away test at Ipswich next weekend.
Sunderland themselves recorded a first win in four last weekend when they beat Norwich at the Stadium of Light and they arrive in Swansea looking to secure an away win after two straight defeats on the road (Stoke and Leicester)
The run of two home games a fortnight back for the Swans were in total contrast to each other. We could certainly leave the game against the leaders Leicester with our heads held high having given them a good run for their money but just three days later it was a defeat to Watford with nothing more than a whimper as the Swans simply failed to turn up.
That meant last Saturday at Blackburn became more essential and the Swans delivered but will now be looking to add to that with three points on home soil today which should lift us back into the top half of the table.
Team wise we will be without Josh Key again who looks set to be sidelined for another few weeks so Harrison Ashby should continue in his place at right back. Other than that it starts to become a Swans side that comes close to picking itself and is not expected to look too much different to the below
Predicted line up: Carl Rushworth, Harrison Ashby, Harry Darling, Bashir Humphreys, Josh Tymon, Matt Grimes, Charlie Patino, Jamie Paterson, Liam Cullen, Jamal Lowe, Jerry Yates.
Sunderland have long term injury concerns of their own but there are no fresh injury concerns for Tony Mowbray.
Striker Eliezer Mayenda and midfielder Adil Aouchiche have continued their recoveries and both travel with the squad for the game whilst Corry Evans, Timothee Pembele and Jay Matete remain out with long-term injuries.
Michael Duff: “Sunderland are a really good team, they are young, they have loads of energy and lots of quality in wide areas,
“They can hurt you in lots of ways. They were in the play-offs last year and have an experienced manager.
“We are going to have to be bang at it, but we have proved we can hurt other teams in a number of recent performances.
“We are back at home. Our last two at home we had two disappointing results, and one disappointing performance.”
Tony Mowbray: “The weather has been horrific and it was difficult to do the preparation for the game.”
“On Thursday we couldn’t really do the preparation for the game. The pitches were under water and the bit we did find there was only enough to play a small sided game, but we did a lot of video work.
“We’re flying to the game, which is the right thing to do, otherwise you get back in the early hours and it eats into the recovery and preparation for the next game. It’s always better when you get a full week of preparation.
“We hope to be aggressive and impose ourselves but we’re very mindful of the fact they’re a good team with good players.”
Score Prediction: Swansea City 3-1 Sunderland
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