Premier League: Swansea vs Sunderland match preview

A look ahead to this weekend's Premier League fixture at Liberty Stadium

Richard Mills
Friday 06 February 2015 18:23 GMT
Comments
Swansea manager Garry Monk
Swansea manager Garry Monk

Swansea City manager Garry Monk will mark a year in charge of the Swans on Saturday against Sunderland at the Liberty Stadium.

Their former player has guided Swansea from two points off the relegation zone when Monk took charge last season and now he has guided the Welsh outfit to ninth in the Premier league.

The inconsistent Swans are trying to cope with life after goal-machine Wilfred Bony left for Manchester City but what they lack in consistency they make up for in symmetry with two wins, two losses and two draws in their last six games.

The hosts, who could give a debut to new midfield signing Jack Cork, haven’t lost back-to-back home games since January 2014 but 14th placed Sunderland have only beaten them once in their seven Premier League encounters.

Gus Poyet’s side have lost their last two away matches in the top flight after a run of five games unbeaten, four of them clean sheets.

Jermaine Defoe, 32, opened got off the mark for his new club against Burnley last weekend and the striker will hope he can contribute to a potential third straight win in eight days.

The Black Cats won’t be helped however by the key absentees of Connor Wickham, Lee Cattermole, Adam Johnson, Jack Rodwell and Emmanuele Giaccherini. The Swans themselves are without the suspended Gylfi Sigurdsson and the injured Marvin Emnes and Wayne Routledge.

KICK-OFF: Saturday, 3pm

PAST THREE MEETINGS…

Sunderland 0 Swansea 0, Premier League, September 2014

Sunderland 1 (Borini) Swansea 3 (Dyer, Emnes, Bony), May 2014

Swansea 4 (OG Bardsley, De Guzman, Bony, OG Fletcher) Sunderland 0, October 2013

STATS…

Head-to-head league record: Swansea wins 7, draws 8, Sunderland wins 10

Sunderland have been dealt more cards than any other Premier League team (58 yellow, one red)

Nobody has scored more own goals than Sunderland this season (5).

For keepers who have made at least ten saves, only Costel Pantilimon (78 per cent) has a better saves to shots ratio in the Premier League this season than Lukasz Fabianksi (74 per cent).

From winning positions, Swansea have dropped more points than any other top flight team this season (16).

ODDS…

Swansea to win: 1.95

Sunderland to win: 4.6

Draw: 3.6

CLASSIC MATCH...

Sunderland 7-2 Swansea Town – (9/12/1961)

To date Sunderland’s biggest win over the Swans, one of their biggest ever, as the Black Cats stretched their unbeaten run, one loss in 13.

Two hat tricks were scored that day, Nigel Clough (no not that one!) and Ambrose Fogarty, with Harry Cooper completing the rout.

TV: Highlights on MOTD on BBC1 at 10.30pm

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in