Can the Swans pop the Cherries? Swans head to Bournemouth for cup tie

Swansea City will be in fourth round FA Cup action this evening when they head to the South Coast and a tie against a Bournemouth side who put us out of the Carabao Cup back in August.

The fourth round tie is the first of this weekend’s sixteen matches between now and Monday evening when another Welsh side – Wrexham – head to Blackburn to finish the round off.

Incredibly Bournemouth have only progressed past this stage of the competition on five previous occasions and Luke Williams will be keen to stop that becoming six and has promised to play a strong side in the match to give them every chance of progression.   The Swans boss recognises how a good cup run could add to any feel good factor he can generate in the second half of the season after the first part of this term passed by with a reasonable level of misery.

Despite the promise for no “wholesale” changes we can certainly expect a few for the game with the likes of Kristian Pedersen, Joe Allen and Jerry Yates all likely to feature (and possibly in the starting lineup) which there could even be an appearance for Andy Fisher in goal as Williams looks to learn more from his squad, again something he admitted yesterday when he said “Every single game at this point is an opportunity to learn what we can and can’t do as a squad.”

Any game against Premier League opposition is a good chance to gauge things about the squad and whatever the selection of Williams tonight each player should be aware that, in their own way, they are playing for their longer term futures at Swansea City.    Williams talked up heavily yesterday the second half of the weekend game against Southampton and, whilst he is right to, he should not also forget the way his side went totally missing in the first half.   More of the former and less of the latter is most definitely on order.

As per the details above, the format of the FA Cup sees VAR in operation when Premier League clubs are at home (I won’t go into the inconsistency which that particular ruling creates in the competition) so we could see some decisions referred this evening.

On the Bournemouth side of the fixture they have injury concerns of their own with Max Aarons missing the game after going off injured against Liverpool, an absence confirmed by Andoni Iraola.

It is especially the full-back department I would say,” said the Cherries boss.  “Apart from Tyler (Adams), it is all full-backs. Max is obviously out. He has a muscle injury. He will be out for some time.

“I don’t know how long it will take, but you have a lot of references with these kind of hamstring injuries.”

Milos Kerkez could though be in the squad for the game as well as Antoine Semenyo  although he will only arrive tomorrow after being part of the Ghana squad that was knocked out of the African Cup of Nations this weeK.   Back to Iraola “Milos is really close. He is the only one with chances to get involved. The rest I think will continue the same.

“He (Semenvo) will arrive I think tomorrow morning. So it is going to be difficult for him, but I will try and talk to him and maybe he can be on the bench.

“But it is going to be difficult, because he is going to spend the night travelling. When this happens, normally you don’t rest well.”

A draw over the ninety minutes tomorrow will see the necessity of a fourth round replay at the Swansea.com Stadium – this round is the last round where replays are required.

The game is being broadcast live on S4C earning the Swans £110,000 in the process.

The JackArmy.net Match Prediction:  Bournemouth 2-1 Swansea City