Michael Laudrup will be hoping his Swansea City side can bounce back from their defeat at Manchester City with a win over Newcastle United on Wednesday night.
Swansea aren’t enjoying themselves as much this season as they did at the same time last year, having only 15 points after 13 games. Newcastle on the other hand are having a much better time after their average start to the season, winning their last four Premier League games. Alan Pardew will be hoping his team can continue this run and push themselves further up the league table with a win in Wales.
Team News
Swansea will be without some key players in this game. Angel Rangel, Leon Britton, Wilfried Bony and Gary Monk are all out for the foreseeable future. Michu is due to return from injury this week but Michael Laudrup may choose to leave him out and see how he is for their next game against Hull City.
Newcastle have much less to worry about with only Ryan Taylor missing out due to a knee injury.
Interesting Statistics
- Loic Remy has scored eight of Newcastle’s 19 league goals this season.
- Swansea have won just one of their last five league games.
- The last time Swansea played Newcastle at the Liberty stadium, they won 1-0.
- Swansea have the better recent record against Newcastle, winning two of the four games they have played against each other. Newcastle have only won once and the other match was a draw.
Key Players
Swansea City – Wayne Routledge
Routledge has been one of Swansea’s best players so far this season, starting 11 games and appearing as a substitute in one other. He has created 13 chances for his team mates and has two assists to his name. This gives him an average of creating a chance every 55 minutes. He has attempted 37 dribbles but has only been successful with 10 of them. He has also attempted 37 crosses but has only been accurate with five of them, giving an accuracy of 14%. Looking at his passing, he has completed 340 passes from 408 attempts which gives him an accuracy of 83%. Perhaps surprisingly for a winger though, 35% of these have went backwards compared to just 21% going forwards. At 213, he has completed more passes in the attacking zone compared to 132 in the defensive zone, but only 71% were accurate compared to 90% of his defensive zone passes. He’s not the most frightening player at Swansea by any means but he will still be a threat to Newcastle. He will probably have a better chance of finding a player in the box if he just plays the ball across the ground however.
Newcastle United – Loic Remy
Remy has been Newcastle’s standout player this season after moving there on loan from Queen’s Park Rangers. He has scored the most goals of anyone else in the team with eight, and has did this from 15 shots on target. This means he is scoring a goal every 105 minutes on average. However, 12 of his shots have been off target so this only gives him a shooting accuracy of 56%. He’s much better at converting his clear-cut chances however with four out of six, giving him a conversion rate of 67%. The Frenchman has also had a significant creative impact on the Newcastle team, creating 12 chances for his team mates and achieving two assists. This means he is creating a chance every 59 minutes on average. Remy is a dangerous player and Swansea’s defence will have a tough job of shutting him down.
Prediction
Swansea do have the advantage of playing at home but aren’t on the best run of form. Newcastle are flying just now and will be in eager pursuit of the teams above them in the league, so I think they will come away from Wales with the victory. I think it will finish 2-1 to Newcastle.
