Swansea City v Manchester City - Preview, statistics, team news, analysis & more

Swansea City v Manchester City

      Barclays Premier League

Saturday 04/05/13

15:00pm K.O.

The Liberty Stadium

  Referee: Mike Jones

The Match

Swansea are still on the hunt for their first win since turning Newcastle over in the wake of the Carling Cup win, although the recent run of games has included Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal, so to criticise too heavily would possibly be a tad harsh. That being said, the performances over the last few games haven't been to the same standard as those displayed earlier in the season, and Laudrup will be keen to finish the season with a bang. Last time out these two sides played out the longest game in PL history (a 1-0 City win) - a game which saw 12 minutes of injury time due to injuries to Michel Vorm and Micah Richards. Both managers will be hoping for a shorter affair this time around as no doubt there are tired legs throughout both squads.

Man City have Champions League football more or less guaranteed, but in the short term they'll be looking forward to the FA Cup final, a week to the day after the Swans game. You have to hope some of the Man City players will have one eye on the upcoming final, but with a squad bursting with talent it's unlikely there'll be any perceivable letup from the Citizens. Whether Mancini will rotate his squad is up for debate, as any regular first-team players will be looking to nail down their place in the side for the FA Cup final, and with no real injury problems any City XI which takes the field will be clear favourites over a Swansea side who've been assembled at a fraction of the cost.

Prior Form (most recent at top)

Premier League                 Chelsea         2 - 0  Swansea
Premier League                Swansea       0 - 0   Southampton
Premier League                 Norwich         2 - 2  Swansea
Premier League                Swansea       1 - 2  Tottenham
Premier League                Swansea       0 - 2   Arsenal        

 

Premier League                Man City         2 - 1  West Ham
Premier League                Tottenham       3 - 1  Man City
Premier League                Man City        1 - 0  Wigan
FA Cup Semi-Final            Chelsea          1 - 2  Man City        

Premier League                Man Utd          1 - 2  Man City

Team News

Swansea are sweating on the fitness of Chico Flores, who bruised his arm in training (I know, it doesn't sound that bad to me either), while Roland Lamah is out with a hamstring injury. Neil Taylor is pushing for a start after making his first appearance since returning from injury against Chelsea last week.

Manchester City are only sweating on the fitness of Joe Hart, who tweaked his back last time out against West Ham, but other than that don't have any injury worries.

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

• Excluding penalties, Swansea have scored the lowest percentage of goals from set pieces (11.6%) and conceded the highest (40%).
• All three Barclays Premier League meetings between Swansea and Man City have seen the home side win whilst keeping a clean sheet.
• Swansea have won four and lost just one of their last six home league meetings with the Citizens.
• Samir Nasri has made four assists in his last five league games while he has either scored or assisted four goals in his last four games (in all competitions).
• Michu has scored a higher percentage of his team's goals than any other player in the top-flight this term (39%).
• Ashley Williams has made the most clearances (362) and the most blocks (47) in the Premier League this term.
• Man City have played the highest percentage of short passes in the top-flight this season (92%).
• The Swans have conceded at least two goals in five of their last six games.
• Both teams average 85% pass accuracy, but City just edge the average possession with 58% to Swansea's 55%.
• Over a third (15/44) of the goals Swansea have conceded this year have come in the 15 minutes before half time.
• Given that Man City score most of their away goals in the fifteen minutes before both half time and full time, that may spell disaster. 
• The Swans haven't won in six, but remarkably Man City haven't drawn in nine - a run which has seen them pick up seven wins.

Completely guessed lineups

Straight from the "horse's mouth";

Michael Laudrup acknowledges that recent performances deserve attention:

"It is always disappointing when you go into a bad run. Did I think there would be some reaction after the cup? Definitely. Reaching 40 points in that game with Newcastle was very important, but we're trying. We want to finish as well as we can in the league.

"We can analyse every game and look for reasons, but the fact is we have only won one game since. It is probably a combination of the club winning it's first major cup and the players feeling a bit tired. We have players that did not play so many games last season. It has been disappointing, but it is not up to me to make excuses, it is up to me to find explanations.

"We know we have got some very difficult games left against the champions of last season and the champions of this season at Old Trafford."

Aalysis

I fancy Man City to go at the Swans all guns blazing from the off. After last year's opening day defeat, where we held out valiantly for 60 minutes before City's added quality in attack saw them disappear into the distance 4-0 winners, the Swans have given Mancini's men a run for their money in both the subsequent games, and they won't fancy another cagey 90 minutes.

Whether Laudrup will change things up too much is doubtful, but I do see him going with Michu in midfield in what will undoubtedly be a bid to add a bit of "beef" to our midfield. I'm doubtful of the effect Michu has on the Swansea midfield, but I'm happy to be proved wrong. If he does go with that I'd expect him to go with Ki, who was excellent against Chelsea, and then obviously one of Leon or De Guzman alongside him. It's highly doubtful he'll go for the three wingers formation, put it that way.

Whoever he does select will likely be up against Yaya Toure and Gareth Barry. This is the kind of midfield that a Swansea side bereft of confidence will not enjoy playing against, so it's vital we control the game from the off. A nod to the Swansea of last year (or even of Paolo Sousa) could see us retain the ball without necessarily looking to bomb on straight away, as has become somewhat of a hallmark this year. Hopefully Leon will be back to his best after an off day in London last time out (in fairness you can consider his "off days" as collector's items), and Ash Williams too will be looking to prove a point after receiving some criticism for his own performance against Chelsea. I didn't think he was too bad to be fair...

It'll be really interesting to see who Laudrup picks at left back. My gut instinct is that Davies will start - it still seems a little soon to be pushing Davies out of the team but ultimately it may well be that Davies will retain his position for the rest of the year. He's shown no signs of fatigue and is no doubt itching to play every minute of every game as he looks to cement his place in the starting eleven. Whoever plays, they could be up against any one of David Silva, James Milner, Samir Nasri or even Scott Sinclair, so there's plenty to worry about in terms of opposition attacking threat - and we haven't even mentioned any centre-forwards yet.

I think Mancini may well give Dzeko a game - the guy is class and can feel unlucky to not have played more, and as part of an old fashioned centre-forward partnership he's something akin to the ultimate "big half" of a big strong guy/little fast guy partnership. Tevez has been enjoying a lot of game time and his combative nature may well see him get the nod too as Mancini looks to avenge the 1-0 defeat inflicted on City in the counterpart fixture last year, where the Swans had Luke Moore to thank for an excellent header late on which was enough for all three points.

A great photo of Luke Moore heading past Joe Hart last year

It's going to be a very tricky game. If we can get to half time at 0-0, then I fancy us to get a point. Whether we do that is another thing though. The level of performance across the team will have to improve - of the players who started at Chelsea I can honestly say I was only really impressed with Ki, Chico and Vorm - there seemed a lethargy across the team which needs to be addressed before this poor run of form starts to affect the atmosphere of the dressing room. It's got to be harder to motivate a group of players if you haven't won in two calendar months, and we need to get back to winning ways even if it's only for morale.

The main question is though - can Luke Moore do it again? Answers on a postcard.

Iechyd Da.