Stoke City will be hosting Swansea City in a bottom of the table clash. While both the teams have started their Premier league campaign nightmarishly, Stoke City have managed to gain some ground by winning convincingly in their last 2 league games.
Stoke is currently placed at the 16th position in the league table while Swansea City is just above the last spot. Swansea have lost 4 of their last 5 league games conceding 10 goals. They have just won once in their last 5 meetings.
Stoke City have never lost at to Swansea in Premier league history. However, Swansea, who are winless in their last 8 games, have never gone longer than 8 games without a win in their top-flight history.
Stoke City have also not been particularly good in their home collecting just 4 points from 4 games. A win on Tuesday would take them very close to the top half as the table is very tight.
Defence
With goalie Jack Butland out with malleolar injury and Shay Given not performing quite encouragingly, Mark Hughes has turned to Lee Grant for the last four matches and the English goalkeeper has proved his mettle.
He is again expected to start between the sticks.
Glen Johnson is also one of the key players, who is out with a hamstring injury. The side back has been replaced by Phil Bardsley. The back four Hughes has been deploying are Erik Pieters, Bruno Martins Indi, Ryan Shawcross and Phil Bardsley.
With an experienced duo of Shawcross and Indi at the heart of his defence, Hughes’ confidence has seemingly increased. We expect the same back line to start at the moment.
