Swans know it won’t be a piece of cake against Howe’s Cherries
SWANSEA City head to the south coast for what is yet another massive game in their bid to stay in the Premier League this season.
After a promising start to life under Carlos Carvalhal, the Swans have endured a difficult run of six league games without a win, which has subsequently brought them to within a point of the dropzone.
A win over the Cherries would go a long way to giving the Swans some breathing space in the battle for survival, particularly with City ending the season with two massive home games against Southampton and Stoke City respectively.
Many will be forgiven for already casting an eye on to that doubleheader, but Carvalhal himself will be want to ensure both he and his players can emerge from Dean Court with all three points.
Kick-off time and TV details
The crucial Premier League clash has been pencilled in for a traditional 3pm kick-off on Saturday.
It therefore won’t be televised, but you can follow live updates, as well as action and reaction on WalesOnline.
Fitness bulletin
Carvalhal has confirmed that Federico Fernandez is back in training after recovering from the injury picked up in the heavy defeat to Manchester City, while there is also positive news on Luciano Narsingh, who could well make his return after sitting out the last three weeks with an ankle injury.
Bournemouth could well start with Tyrone Mings, who was an unused substitute last week, but Harry Arter, Junior Stanislas and Adam Smith are all out.
It’s otherwise a clean bill of health for Eddie Howe’s Cherries.
What the managers say
Eddie Howe: “Nothing will sway me from my mentality to be the best I can every day but for the players it is very difficult.
“I think we have just come off mentally, not technically, not tactically, we have just come off mentally where we need to be.
“The biggest challenge now and the difficulty is to try to find that again.
“I am urging my players to forget everything that has happened, just go out and play at their absolute maximum levels.”
Carlos Carvalhal: “If you saw the Man City game and the ball possession, they have that against many teams.
“It was more even against Chelsea, we shared the game, First half v United they played well and Mourinho said it was their best 45 minutes but in the second half we had the better of the game.
“But those teams usually have more of the ball and the other team is defending. The problem is we play these teams in a few weeks.
“We are playing more games away than at home. So it is not correct to say we are negative, other teams would have been the same in these games. You cannot say we are defensive. “ “Against Chelsea it was almost even, we divided the game.”
Expected line-ups
Bournemouth (3-4-3): Begovic; Ake, Cook, Francis; Daniels, Gosling, Cook, Fraser; King, Wilson, Ibe
Swansea (5-3-1-1): Fabianski; Naughton, van der Hoorn, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson; Ki, King, Clucas; A Ayew; J Ayew.
What the pundits say
Charlie Nicholas, Sky Sports: “Eddie Howe was saying he wants to finish well and this is a Bournemouth side which are at their best when they’re free-flowing.
“The pressure is off and Jermain Defoe is back in the goals so I can see him putting Swansea right back in trouble.” Prediction: 2-1 (Nicholas is also predicting a 2-1 win for Southampton at Everton and a 2-1 win for Stoke against Crystal Palace that would plunge Swansea back into the relegation zone) Mark Lawrenson, BBC: “Bournemouth lost at Southampton last week and their results have fallen away quite badly in the past couple of months.
“The same could be said of Swansea in the past few weeks - they have hit the buffers really badly, and
have forgotten how to win at a crucial time of the season.
“So both teams are out-of-form, but it is the Cherries I am backing to return to winning ways here.
“Whether I am right or not, Swansea’s season will surely go to the wire.
“They finish their season with games against Southampton and Stoke and, although their fate will be in their own hands, I don’t think they will be out of trouble going into the final day.
Prediction: 2-0 (Lawro also reckons Stoke will beat Palace 2-0 and believes Southampton will draw 1-1 at Everton)
What our writer says
Matt Southcombe: The Swans will take encouragement from their second-half performance against Chelsea, despite leaving emptyhanded.
Nathan Dyer’s introduction changed the system to a 4-3-3 and resulted in a far more promising outlook when compared to the submissive display at the Etihad a week earlier.
Despite that, manager Carvalhal looks likely to persist with a back five, having refuted claims that a perceived negative approach is to blame for their poor run of results.
The likely return of Fernandez at the heart of the defence will be welcome,d but the Swans must ask more questions at the other end of the field.
It’s a winnable game for the Welsh side, but they must seize the initiative from the start, as opposed to sitting off the Cherries, as they have done against the top sides in recent weeks.
Prediction: 1-2
Match facts
Bournemouth are unbeaten in their five Premier League meetings with Swansea (W3 D2), keeping a clean sheet in each of the last three (W2 D1).
The Swans have lost both of their Premier League visits to the Vitality Stadium, last winning there in a League One match in October 2007 (4-1).
The Cherries have only faced Leicester (6) more often without defeat in the Premier League than they have Swansea (5).
After a run of just two defeats in 14 games, Bournemouth have lost each of their last three in the Premier League. They’ve not lost four in a row since their opening four of this season.
Eddie Howe’s side are on the longest current run without a Premier League clean sheet, conceding at least once in each of their last 11 games.
Swansea are winless in six Premier League games (D3 L3), failing to score on four occasions in that run.
Away from home, Swansea have won just one of their last 16 Premier League games (D5 L10), including a 1-4 loss on their last visit to the South Coast (against Brighton back in February).
Bournemouth have kept just two clean sheets at home in the Premier League this season – only three clubs have ever kept fewer across an entire Premier League campaign (Sunderland 2005-06, Blackpool 2010-11 and Wigan 2012-13 all kept one).
Swansea have scored a league-low number (9) and ratio (33% - 9/27) of their Premier League goals in the first half of games this season.
Josh King has scored three goals in his last five Premier League appearances, as many has he had in his previous 20 in the competition.
Odds
Bournemouth 11/10 Draw 5/2 Swansea 12/5