Swansea City vs Aston Villa 2014
Lambert on his squad and Swansea
‘They won’t be nervous. That won’t come into it. You give them the belief that they will go and win, and I know we have a goal threat. I know we have that attacking threat. We know we’re up against a good side in Swansea but we will go with the confidence to win.’
Monk on Villa
“People ask about whether it is a good time to be playing someone if they are not in great form, but no game is easy and that is especially true at this stage of the season.
“Villa are a young side who are very energetic, and we can’t take anything for granted. It’s going to be a really tough game for us, and I have been stressing to the players this week that there is still work to do for us this season.”
Form is Temporary
Memory match:
27 November 2011 Swansea 0 Aston Villa 0
A forgettable draw marked our first encounter with Swansea in the Premier League era, a run that continued with a 2-2 result last season. A game featuring Bent, Herd, N’Zogbia… even Jenas!
Swansea – Last five matches at home: W 2, D 1, L 2
Aston Villa – Last five matches away: D 1, L 4
One to Watch
Wilfried Bony – Swansea weren’t afraid to pay big money for the Ivory Coast forward and its proved to be good business. He’s scored 13 league goals this season, including two against Newcastle last week.
Facts to Sweep Under the Carpet
With both injury problems and an atmosphere of instability at Villa, a goalless draw against Southampton was acceptable, if disappointing. What is particularly worrying about the recent dismal form (one point from last 15) however is the lack of goals. It’s been over three hours (match time) since we scored a Premier League goal so the absence of Benteke is clear to see. There are reasons to be nervous ahead of Saturday’s game considering we’ve only won one of the eight Premier League games the Belgian striker has missed.
What We Pray the Football Gods Will Provide
While our once-praised away form has been very poor this season, the defending on our travels has improved. We’ve only conceded 21 goals away this season so it will be important to bring this solidity into the Swansea game. As the match at Villa Park displayed, the Swans like to have a lot of the possession, so a repeat of the defensive performance against dominant Southampton will be most welcome. Also, we need to see more from our forward players, most of whom have seemed rather anonymous in the last few matches.
Why Villa have got this game in the bag
After a good win against Newcastle, Swansea know they are in touching distance of Premier League safety, but the Swans haven’t claimed consecutive wins since December 2012.
We’ve seen plenty of training ground pictures of a grinning Paul Lambert over the past two weeks with the club trying to keep up the appearance that the mood is upbeat amongst the squad, and now it is time to show it on the pitch. A win during our trip to Wales would probably give Lambert a chance of matching last season’s end of season point’s tally and finally secure Villa’s top flight status (an embarrassing thing to be writing at this stage of the season). UTV
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Villa certainly have been toothless of late but can they grow some new fangs ? Lambert & his new coaches have now had 2 weeks to access the team & mould them to produce results . Talk is that Albrighton can be a bigger threat than he was against Saints , but the question is who will get on the end of his balls into the box . Will Lambert go with the same old formation or change things to accomadate Robinson who is getting talked up, & possibly ,a now fit Helenius ? But if new faces come in who gets dropped ? Most would agree Weimann should be dropped , but what about Gabby who I hear is backing Lambert & who would be happy to drop to the bench if it means Villa get a win !