Swansea - Match Preview

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The Match

Chelsea head to Wales on Sunday to face Swansea at the Liberty Stadium with the match set to kick off at 4.07pm UK time. The Blues will look to complete their first Premier League double over Swansea after a solitary goal from Eden Hazard gave his side a 1-0 win in the reverse fixture on Boxing Day last year.

Garry Monk’s side, however, will be keen to avenge that loss – especially after last weekend’s defeat at Hull - and steer clear of the relegation trapdoor as the season enters its final few weeks. The Swans are currently in 15th and sit 6 points clear of the bottom three and their form have been inconsistent throughout the course of the season winning just 6 of their first 24 Premier League games which saw Michael Laudrup sacked in early February.

Things have not improved much under Monk with only 2 wins secured in 9 league games but the performances have been better – against Napoli, Liverpool and Everton - than the results suggested with only defensive errors costing them favourable results. Monk’s cause though will now be aided with the return of key players from injury in the likes of Michu, Jonjo Shelvey and Jonathan de Guzman as they bid to pick up yet another positive result against Chelsea in their home ground following two 1-1 draws in the previous two seasons.

In contrast, Jose Mourinho’s men come into this game boosted by their comeback against Paris St. Germain in Europe on Tuesday and qualification for the semi finals. However, the London will be desperate to sort out the inconsistent league form of late having suffered shock defeats in the last 2 away games against Aston Villa and Crystal Palace.

Those two setbacks have seen the Blues slipped into second place and trail Liverpool by 2 points at the top. With Manchester City travelling to Anfield tomorrow, Mourinho knows his side must take advantage of that clash and will be boosted by the recent form of lesser used players in Andre Schurrle and Mohamed Salah as Chelsea cannot afford anymore slip ups if they want to bring back the league title back to the capital.

Team News

Swansea

Garry Monk has no injury concerns to his side for this game with the exception of Kyle Bartley and it means he will have a strong set of players to select from.

Provisional Squad: Vorm, Tremmel, Taylor, Flores, Williams, Rangel, Canas, Cornell, Lamah, Britton, Hernandez, Dyer, Shelvey, Routledge, Tiendalli, De Guzman, Pozuelo, Vazquez, Richards, Bony, Michu, N’Gog and Emnes.

Chelsea

Eden Hazard will be unavailable for the Blues after picking up a calf injury against PSG while John Terry is rated doubtful for the clash with an ankle problem. On the positive side, Mourinho would be able to select Ramires once more after the latter served a three-match suspension following his red card against Aston Villa last month and Samuel Eto’o should be fit after having played the entire game in midweek.

Provisional Squad: Cech, Schwarzer, Hilario, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Cole, Luiz, Kalas, Mikel, Matic, Ramires, Lampard, Ake, Willian, Oscar, Schurrle, Salah, Eto’o, Torres and Ba.

Stats and Facts

1. Chelsea have won 2 and drawn 3 of their 5 Premier League meetings against Swansea.

2. Chelsea have won 11 and drawn 1 of their last 12 Premier League games played on a Sunday and have won the last 9 in a row (via Opta).

3. Chelsea have lost their last 2 Premier League away games but Jose Mourinho has never suffered 3 consecutive Premier League away losses in a single season.

4. Chelsea have kept a clean sheet in their last 3 games against Swansea in all competitions – W2 D1.

5. Chelsea have scored four goals or more on four occasions this season with only Liverpool and Manchester City have achieved this more times – 11 and 10 respectively (via BBC).

6. Swansea have won 3 and lost only 1 of their last 5 Premier League home matches and kept a clean sheet in each of those wins.

7. All 5 of Swansea’s home league wins this season have come when they have kept a clean sheet (via BBC).

8. Swansea have already lost more games this season than ever before in a single Premier League season – 16 (via Opta).

9. ‘Own Goals’ is Swansea’s second top goalscorer this season with 8 goals with only Wilfried Bony has more – 11 (via Opta).

10. Swansea have won just 1 of their 10 Premier League games in April – D4 L5.

Match Odds (Final Result/Full Time)

Swansea WIN - 18/5

DRAW - 5/2

Chelsea WIN - 4/5

*Odds obtained from SkyBet*

Match Coverage

Depending on where you are from, you can watch the match in the following channels:

United Kingdom: Sky Sports 1HD

United States: NBC Sports Live Extra, NBCSN

Middle East: beIN Sport

Belgium: Sporting 1, Be Sport 1

India: Star Sports 4 India, Star Sports 3 India, Star Sports HD 2 India

For additional regions, you can check out the TV schedule for the match here.

There should be many match streams that can be found online if your local sports channels are not broadcasting the game or if you happen to be busy and cannot catch the game live, follow TalkChelsea on Twitter as it would provide live match commentary on the action.

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