West Bromwich Albion v Swansea City Match Preview

                         

                 

W.B.A vs Swansea City

Barclays Premier League

Saturday 09/03/13

15:00pm K.O.

The Hawthorns

Referee: Lee Mason

Match Preview, Statistics & Analysis

West Brom come into this game looking like they may have turned a corner, despite their most recent result being a 1-0 loss at Chelsea. Losing at Stamford Bridge is, for clubs like WBA and the Swans, something which is, despite managers undoubtedly claiming otherwise, expected if the Londoners are on their game. Recent results include an excellent 2-0 win away at Liverpool, a 2-1 home win over Sunderland and a narrow 1-0 home loss to Spurs. If the Baggies can secure three points here it'll make it three wins from four, and they will be no doubt be able to draw confidence from recent results as the season starts to build to what will inevitably be the usual tumultuous finish.

Michu. Swervy. 

Swansea head into the match looking to pick up there they left off at the Liberty the last time these sides met. The pre-Wembley hammering at Anfield and a 1-0 away reverse at West Ham are the only real blips in what has otherwise been an impressive couple of weeks for the Swans. Goals had seemed to be becoming an issue, but they seem to be flowing freely again after some impressive bludgeoning of first QPR, and then, famously, Bradford in the Capital One Cup Final. The Swans are looking to put back to back wins together for the first time since early December, and will no doubt be aware that victory will mean they'll have "done the double" over the Baggies two seasons in a row. Swansea are still struggling away from home however, with no wins, or even goals, coming in the last four matches away from Fortress Liberty.

Prior Form

Premier League Chelsea 1-0 West Brom
Premier League West Brom  2-1 Sunderland                
Premier League Liverpool     0-2 West Brom                 
Premier League West Brom 0-1 Tottenham                
Premier League             Everton        2-1 West Brom                


Premier League             Swansea     1-0 Newcastle                      
League Cup Final           Bradford     0-5 Swansea                       
Premier League             Liverpool     5-0 Swansea                      
Premier League             Swansea     4-1 QPR                              
Premier League             West Ham   1-0 Swansea                      




Odds: WBA 6-5, Swansea 11-5, Draw 12-5

Team News

Goran Popov. Classy guy. 

West Bromwich Albion have Goran Popov available again following his three match ban for spitting at an opponent. Nice. Lukaku is the obvious threat, and he'll be raring to go after missing the Chelsea game due to being ineligible to play against his parent club. Chris Brunt should also return, and his burgeoning understanding with Lukaku could well prove critical if his radar is functioning. Shane Long, however, looks set to miss out as he's still struggling with an ankle problem.

Swansea will again have to do without Chico Flores as he continues his rehabilitation from an ankle injury suffered after what looked, to me, an unnecessarily physical challenge in the 4-1 victory over QPR. Garry Monk is, according to reports, again likely to figure so you wonder what role Kyle Bartley has to play for the rest of the season. Neil Taylor has stepped up his recovery and is now in full training, however this game comes too soon for him. Kemy Augustien is again out, this time with a thigh injury, and I can honestly say that I can't think of a player more prone to injury than the Dutchman. It remains to be seen whether he'll do enough to warrant an extension on his contract, which I believe is up this summer?

Trivia - "Courtesy" of Opta, the BBC and various other sites;

• West Brom have never lost four successive games against Swansea City.

• Albion have lost six of their last nine league games, earning only seven points during that period.
• The Baggies have 40 points from 28 games - their highest in PL history at this point in the season. 
• WBA are yet to have an English goalscorer this season. Only Fulham (twice!) have gone an entire season without an English goalscorer. 
• Young Isaiah Brown could, at 16 years and 61 days, become the youngest ever Premier League footballer. He would, however, only be WBA's second youngest debutant (Frank Hodgetts was 16 years & 26 days v Notts County in 1940)

• WBA have only once had more points at this stage of a top-flight season, in 1981-82. They finished sixth that season.
• Michael Laudrup's side have failed to win, or score, in four successive away matches in the league (D2, L2).
• The Swans have only dropped two points from leading positions this season, the best record in the division.
• Michu has only scored in one of his last eight league appearances, bagging two against QPR.

Completely guessed lineups

West Bromwich Albion

 Foster

Reid                Olsson (C)         McAuley         Ridgewell

Yacob          Mulumbu

Morrison                 Dorrans             Brunt(C)

  Lukaku

   Michu

Hernandez              Routledge               Dyer

Britton             De Guzman

Davies            Williams(C)   Monk        Rangel

   Vorm

   Swansea City

Analysis

This game has the potential to be a high scoring affair I feel, despite the Swans recent lack of goals away from home. West Brom started the season in absolutely incredible form, before results started to fall away. As the stats above show, six losses in the last nine games is far from the WBA side that seemed to announce bold intentions earlier in the campaign, however recent good results mean that they've arrested their slide down the table, although they now find themselves behind Swansea on goal difference.

The return of Lukaku cannot be underestimated: the Belgian frontman is an imperious, combative threat who will no doubt give Ashley Williams and co a hard time as he looks to get his name on the scoresheet. As Liam Ridgewell said, the Baggies are motivated for this game as being beaten in four consecutive matches by a newly promoted side is clearly not something that sits well with established Premier League players. Steve Clarke has been effusive in his praise for Swansea but for all his kind words, he will no doubt be expecting his side to recover three points.

"We went down there this season, on the back of four wins, and for 30 minutes, it's the best any team has played against us. It is probably one of the best 30 minutes I've seen from a team in the Premier League for a number of years. I thought they were outstanding that night and we got a bit of a tonking. We look forward to the chance to try and put a few things right on Saturday. 

"We will be looking at different things and ideas and hope we can find a way that is a bit different to how we've played against them before." Steve Clarke

If this game was to be played in SA1 then I'd say those comments would indicate Steve Clarke is prepared to park the bus in an attempt to frustrate the Swans, but given that they're the home side that's unlikely. There are a number of possibilities as to ways you can get at  the Swans, and in the past sides have tried man-marking Leon Britton, as well as bypassing the Swansea midfield completely by playing mostly long passes. So far this season Chris Brunt has attempted fifty crosses, which when you compare that with the 34 that Dyer and Routledge have managed (combined) all season, would indicate that on any given day WBA are a much more direct team than the Swans. Obviously, they have the aerial threat of Lukaku up top, which isn't to be underplayed, however the Swans have dealt with direct football effectively for a while now and the notion that he'll spend most of the afternoon "clearing out" is likely to actually draw a smile from Ashley Williams. The Swans centre-back has made 36 blocks this season, and has been unerring in his willingness to put his body on the line in an effort to protect the Swansea goal.

Mark Lawrenson has predicted a 2-1 WBA win, but I'm not so sure he's right. The other day I saw an image of what the Premier League would look like if Lawrenson's predictions were all spot on, and in googling the image I also stumbled upon the final table made up of his predictions from last year.

As you can see from his table last year, despite the Swans continued good form Lawro still didn't fancy the Swans. This man gets paid to talk about football all day, it's quite remarkable really.You'd have thought given our good start to the season, he'd have learned his lesson.

Nope. Do you think he actually plans this stuff? QPR 6th? Earning your corn there, Lawro!










After criticism from some quarters for my generally ill-fated predictions (the word curse has been mentioned) I'm loathe to predict a Swans win, however I'm not so sure that would be the case anyway. No team likes being beaten repeatedly by the same opponent, especially so when the team in question aren't one of the super-powers of the British game, and the West Brom players will be fired up for this, and I don't see either team keeping clean sheets. For no logical reason, I'm going to say 2-2, and I fancy Ashley Williams for a goal.

I wonder what odds you can get on that...

Iechyd Da.