Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Midfielder Ki Sung-yueng is available for Swansea after recovering from the concussion which ruled him out of last Saturday’s draw with Crystal Palace.
Francesco Guidolin has no fresh injury worries ahead of this weekend.
Southampton’s Victor Wanyama begins a five-match ban imposed as a result of his third red card of the season.
Steven Davis and Matt Targett return after recovering from injury, while Jay Rodriguez is expected back in full training in the next fortnight.
Editor’s Note: It’s two of the form sides going head to head this Afternoon after Swansea play host to Southampton. Swansea are unbeaten in four matches while Southampton are unbeaten in five and haven’t conceded a Goal during that period either. The run for Swansea has coincided with the appointment of Francesco Guidolin as Head Coach and with every game they can go unbeaten that is going to look like an inspired choice.
Guidolin has been in charge for 3 of those 4 matches while being in the stands for their Home win over Watford while Alan Curtis took charge for the final time. Since then Guidolin has seemingly transformed their fortunes as they have managed to get themselves out of the drop zone. With them currently in 16th the job is nowhere near done but there is certainly a lot more confidence among the South Wales side as of late.
Last time out they draw with Crystal Palace at The Liberty Stadium, with Palace’s terrible run of form as of late then Francesco Guidolin will probably see that as two points dropped but it was a solid performance and the more of those they have between now and the end of the season will see them pull further away from the drop zone.
Today they go up against a Southampton side who have looked very solid as of late have managed to turn their season around quite dramatically, an unbeaten run of 5 matches of which 4 were wins and a 0-0 draw away at Arsenal is in no small part to the return of Goalkeeper Fraser Forster. Since his return the Saints haven’t had their net breached and they now find themselves 7th in the Premier League.
Another key element to their resurgent climb up the table has been the decision to move to 3-5-2, although Matt Targett didn’t play last week through injury his reintroduction to the side as a wing back with Ryan Bertrand on the other side has seen Southampton look like a much different unit and one that is clearly dominating games. They will be looking for more of the same against Swansea this Afternoon.
I have a feeling Southampton may just edge this one although I have a feeling their clean sheet run will be broken. I think both teams to score but Southampton to just edge this one and then go 6 Premier League games unbeaten. An away win for me.
