Swansea City will be welcoming Sunderland to the Liberty Stadium in a relegation six-pointer on Saturday afternoon. While the host are struggling to find any hold at the moment and their manager is under fire after last week’s disastrous 5-0 loss to Tottenham, Sunderland are enjoying their best spell of the season winning three of their last four games.
Team News
Swansea City- Problems continue for Swansea City as they will be yet again without Ki Sung-Yeung and Federico Fernandez. The South-Korean midfielder has missed his last two games after suffering a broken toe.
Apart from that all the three- Leon Britton, Wayne Routledge and Fernando Llorente are in contention get a first-team nod. Swansea are lurking at rock bottom of the league table and Bob Bradley is under tremendous pressure to get his team out of the relegation zone.
Sunderland- Just when Sunderland’s injury crisis seemed to be nearing an end, they faced yet another in Duncan Watmore, who will be missing the rest of the season with cruciate knee ligament damage. Sunderland boss David Moyes has to decide on who should replace him with the likes of Wahbi Khazri, Seb Larsson and Adnan Januzaj, are all vying to take his place.
Apart from that Fabio Borini, who was out with a groin injury since August, might make a short appearance. However, Lee Cattermole, Jack Rodwell and Paddy McNair still remain on the injury list.
Predicted Lineup
Swansea City- Fabianski; Naughton, Van der Hoorn, Amat, Taylor; Fulton; Cork, Fer, Routledge, Barrow; Sigurdsson,
Sunderland- Pickford, van Aanholt, Papy Djilobodji, Kone, Jones; Denayer; Anichebe, N’dong, Pienaar, Watmore; Defoe
Key Players
Swansea City- Gylfi Sigurdsson will no doubt be having the responsibility to get the scoresheet going and Bob Bradley will also be having the option of Fernando Llorente, who is a natural forward, to start in the centre forward position. The Spaniard seems to have got back his scoring touch after the 5-goal thriller against Crystal Palace.
Leroy Fer has definitely been one of the most impactful players for Swansea so far scoring 6 from the central midfield position in 13 appearances. The Dutch midfielder will be highly relied on when they host Sunderland.
Sunderland- Jermain Defoe will be the main man for Sunderland to get the back of the net against Swansea. He has a brilliant record against them. He has scored five times in three Premier League games against Swansea for Sunderland, including a hat-trick the last time the sides met in January. Although Anichebe is also supporting Defoe lately, the English striker is simply on fire at the moment.
Odds
Swansea City @ 2.15
Draw @ 3.5
Sunderland @ 3.6
