The Match
Swansea are looking to end the season with bang after an impressive performance last time out in an emotionally charged affair with Manchester United. A number of improved performances have seen the Swans take a point from Man City, beat Wigan away and push United close, so they'll be looking to take three points from Fulham to end the season on a high. The Swans are already guaranteed 9th place, however a win over Fulham (and a West Brom loss to Man Utd) would see the Swans finish in 8th place - a remarkable result given pre-season apprehensions.
Fulham have hardly produced inspiring football of late, however with Premier League safety assured they're likely to play with a freedom that's been missing over recent weeks. They've lost six of their last seven games however, and Fulham fans will hope their players have one last effort in them as they attempt to bring some points home from South Wales. The Londoners haven't kept a clean sheet since March though, so goals are a distinct possibility this Sunday.
Last time out
Fulham 1 - 2 Swansea City
The Swans came out on top at Craven Cottage thanks to goals from Danny Graham and Jonathan De Guzman. Graham gobbled up a rebound after Nathan Dyer had forced David Stockdale into a save (we wanted to buy him once, remember?), before Pablo capitalised on a poor clearance from the keeper to feed in De Guzman, who put the Swans two up. A late goal from Bryan Ruiz saw Fulham pile the pressure on late on, but the Swans were good value for the three points.
The Swans came out on top at Craven Cottage thanks to goals from Danny Graham and Jonathan De Guzman. Graham gobbled up a rebound after Nathan Dyer had forced David Stockdale into a save (we wanted to buy him once, remember?), before Pablo capitalised on a poor clearance from the keeper to feed in De Guzman, who put the Swans two up. A late goal from Bryan Ruiz saw Fulham pile the pressure on late on, but the Swans were good value for the three points.
Prior Form (most recent at top)
Premier League Man Utd 2 - 1 Swansea
Premier League Wigan 2 - 3 SwanseaPremier League Swansea 0 - 0 Man City
Premier League Chelsea 2 - 0 Swansea
Premier League Swansea 0 - 0 Southampton
Premier League Fulham 1 - 3 Liverpool
Premier League Fulham 2 - 4 Reading
Premier League Everton 1 - 0 Fulham
Premier League Fulham 2 - 4 Reading
Premier League Everton 1 - 0 Fulham
Premier League Fulham 0 - 1 Man Utd
Premier League Fulham 0 - 3 Man Utd
Premier League Fulham 0 - 3 Man Utd
Team News
Swansea welcomed Chico Flores and Michu back against Manchester United, while Neil Taylor made his first start since overcoming his ankle injury. Ki Sung-Yeung (dead leg) and Michel Vorm (concussion) should both return to the squad after missing the Wigan game.
Fulham will be without Keiron Richardson after he came off 15 minutes into the Liverpool game last week, suffering from a hamstring injury, while Simon Davies (thigh), Ashkan Dejagah (ankle) and Mahamadou Diarra (knee) all look set to miss out.
Trivia (courtesy of various other sites);
- Swansea have won 35%, drawn 45% and lost 20% of their last 20 home games.
- Swansea have kept a clean sheet in 30% of their last 20 home games.
- In their last 20 home games against teams positioned below them in the table, Swansea have won 12, drawn 8 and lost 0 of these matches
- Fulham have won 20%, drawn 35% and lost 45% of their last 20 away games.
- Fulham have conceded in 80% of their last 20 away games.
- Fulham have failed to score in 45% of their last 20 away games.
- Fulham have lost 6 of their last 7 games, have currently lost their last five games in a row.
- Swansea have beaten Fulham in all three of their Premier League meetings, conceding just one goal.
- Swansea are one of only two teams this season yet to win a penalty (alongside Tottenham). Charlton in 2004-05 were the last side to go a whole Premier League season without winning a penalty.
- Just 11% of Swansea's goals (five of 47) have come from set-pieces this season, which is the lowest ratio in the Premier League.
- Swansea have scored the highest percentage of goals (70%) in the second half of matches in the league this season.
- This is the 63rd meeting between the sides. Fulham have won 30 times, Swansea 22 and there have been 10 draws.
- Fulham have lost five successive Premier League games. They have only lost six in a row once before in the competition - between February and March 2002.
- Eleven of Dimitar Berbatov's 14 league goals for Fulham have come before half-time. Only Clint Dempsey has scored more goals (17 last season) in a single Premier League season for the club.
- They have thrown away 23 points from winning positions and gained just five from losing positions this season.
- Only Robin van Persie (12) has scored more goals at home than Michu (11) in the Premier League this season.
Completely guessed lineups
Straight from the "horse's mouth";
Michael Laudrup was effusive in his analysis of his debut season in the Premier League:
"We are 100 per cent sure of finishing in the top ten, things will have to go very badly for us not to be ninth and we even have a possibility of finishing eighth. Hopefully Manchester United can do us a favour and if we then beat Fulham, we would be eighth.
"That would be like winning the championship — that's the maximum for us when you look at the seven clubs above. We can say now that we will probably end up first or second in what I would call our league. When you add that to the cup win, that's an amazing season."
Martin Jol responded to speculation about prospective movers and shakers in the Fulham camp ahead of the close season:
"If people make up a little story and I speak about new players coming in, of course you need a little bit of money. They associate us with the chairman and he has to give us the funds, but we are healthy club. We will try to get some players in so there is no story. I am very happy. It is 10 minutes from my house, my girl is going to school and she loves it there. She had her first competitive match yesterday against another school and they beat them. She was happy, I am happy, the missus is happy and hopefully I can make the fans happy again as well."
Analysis
The time has come for the Swans to play the last match of the season. The exploits of Michael Laudrup and his band of unassuming players have surpassed what any of us would have expected, and with the legendary Dane set to continue as Swans boss next year and European football to boot there's plenty of reasons for Swansea fans to look forward to the coming campaign.
Swansea seem to have turned the corner after a poor run of results, and will be looking at this as a more than winnable fixture. They haven't won at home since beating Newcastle 1-0 (thanks to a late Luke Moore goal) on the 2nd of March, however three of the four games which have passed at the Liberty since then have been Arsenal, Spurs and Man City, so to criticise would, as I've said before, possibly be a little on the harsh side. That being said, performances had dipped and Laudrup admitted that we'd possibly been "over-performing" earlier in the season, so it's pleasing to see performance levels increase once again as the Swans look to finish the season with a bang.
A lot of people I've spoken to seem to think this could be a bit of a dead rubber, however I'm not sure. Both teams play an attractive brand of football, but in all honesty there are quite a few players in the Fulham squad who I know next-to-nothing about. The obvious threats will be Bryan Ruiz, Dimitar Berbatov and Alexander Kacaniklic - if the Swans can starve this trio of possession it will go a long way to assuring victory. I fancy the Swans to have too much for Fulham, especially with a boisterous home crowd eager to see a home win for the first time in two and a half months.
Question marks remain about Vorm and Ki's fitness - I'm hoping the Korean is fit enough to play some part but it may well be that De Guzman is selected ahead of him as he seems to have been preferred of late. I'm hoping Gerhard Tremmel retains his place, he's been excellent for us and deserves another start after missing out on games once Vorm regained fitness following an earlier groin injury. Whether the Dutchman is fit after suffering concussion in the Wigan game remains to be seen, but whoever lines up between the sticks is likely to put in a quality shift so we don't have to worry too much there.
On paper, I'd have thought that defensively Fulham would be alright given the calibre of both Brede Hangeland and Aaron Hughes at centre-back, however a run of five straight defeats (and 6 in 7) clearly indicates something is up in South West London. Hopefully they won't find a way of remedying their own bad run as a win for the Swans would continue a recent upward curve which saw us hold Man City to a draw and beat Wigan away in a game which saw Wigan display just why they were relegated.
Shocking defending aside, you've got to put the chances away when they're presented to you and the Swans did just that. With mid-table rivals West Brom entertaining Man Utd the Baggies need to win to guarantee they'll hold on to 8th place. A Swans win would see them finish the season on 49 points - two more than they managed last season, and a win would also see them finish the season with a goal difference of 0 or better. Quite a feat for a club the size of the Swans.
There is of course the possibility that the game could develop into something approaching a lethargic chess match, but I don't think the crowd would stand for that. It's the end of the season, and everyone will be in party mode - goals are required. Can the Swans deliver? I think so. If we go with the three wingers I can't see Fulham being able to keep us out, however I also can't see us keeping a clean sheet (Hangeland from a corner?). I'm going to be in the North Stand for the first time tomorrow - it'll be interesting to see what kind of noise the travelling fans generate. If the Swans score early, they could be in for a torrid afternoon.
Let's hope it's sunny at least...
Iechyd Da.