Swansea City will be hosting Stoke City in their last game of the season. One can see this encounter happening next season in the second division of English Football as both are destined to go down. The Swans are not mathematically out of it as a win for them this weekend and a loss for Southampton against Manchester City will put them level on points. However, Southampton needs to make sure they don’t suffer a heavy defeat. There needs to be a 10 goal shift for Swansea to pip Southampton over and that looks highly unlikely.
Knowing this, it will be difficult for Carlos Carvalhal to motivate his players for the last encounter. On the other hand, Paul Lambert will also be facing the same possibility as they are sitting at the bottom of the table. One can say this is rather a dead rubber game but the Swansea faithful will be hoping for a miracle to happen and a big favour from Manchester City.
Their survival was in their hands as a positive result or even a draw against Southampton in the midweek fixture would have kept them alive and established them as the favourites to survive, especially because of the fact that the Saints are to play against the runaway league leaders, Manchester City in the last encounter. However, a goal from Manolo Gabbiadini dashed their hopes of survival.
There are no major injury concerns for Carvalhal apart from Kyle Naughton, who might yet not be fit for this game.
We look at how the Swans will lineup in their last encounter against the Potters.
Formation(3-4-2-1)
Defence:
Lukasz Fabianski will be expected to start in goal for the Swans for one last time this season. It will be interesting to see whether the Polish stopper will stick with them for the next season if they are relegated. He has managed nine clean sheets in the entire campaign and he has been quite solid most of the times. Alfie Mawson, Frederico Fernandez and Mike van der Hoorn will be expected to start at the back three.
Midfield:
Conor Roberts and Martin Olsson will start in the wing-back role. Naughton is a regular starter but he might not be fit for this final encounter. Ki Sung-Yueng and Andy King will play in the middle of the park and their job will be to protect the defence as well as to keep things moving in the midfield.
Attack:
The Ayew brothers will be expected to start together and will provide the attacking outlet. Nathan Dyer will also be in the mix and he will complete the front three. The Swans have struggled in front of goal as they have scored 27 goals in the top flight, which is the lowest in the division.
