Will Chelsea sink or swim against the Swans?

Swansea City v Chelsea

Chelsea take the long trip to Wales as the Liberty Stadium plays host to one of the handful of Premier League fixtures on Tuesday evening.

City’s last home match in the league was their brilliant 3-2 victory over North Londoners Arsenal a fortnight or so ago, but since then, the Swans have not won at home since early December last year.

Chelsea are unbeaten in their last five matches in all competitions and are hoping to win by a more comfortable score line after only scoring two goals in their previous three matches – all be it keeping clean sheets in their last four. 

Key Swansea players

There’s no doubt that the Swans’ strength is their pace down the wings and ability to counter-attack. After a tough start to his Premier League career, City’s record-signing Danny Graham leads the line following his nine goals this year. Former Blues youngster Scott Sinclair is also proving to be a nuisance for the opposition and a dab-hand at penalties, whilst Nathan Dyer has speed, skill and goals in him. Central midfielder Leon Britton will be looking to pull the strings and has even got a better passing ratio then FC Barcelona’s Xavi!

A few stats

• The previous meeting saw Fernando Torres link-up with Juan Mata to score before seeing a straight red card for a two-footed lunge of Mark Gower.        
• £7m Chelsea signing Gary Cahill could make his debut for the Blues in the centre of defence.
• Swansea loanee Josh McEachran will not play a part in this match as he can’t feature against his parent club (Chelsea).

Potential Chelsea line-up: 4-3-2-1

Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Cole, Lampard, Meireles, Romeu, Mata, Sturridge, Torres.

Subs: Turnbull, David Luiz, Bosingwa, Ferreira, Essien, Malouda, Lukaku

 

                                                                Swansea                                                Chelsea

Top scorer (league):                          Danny Graham (7)                                    Frank Lampard (9)

Last match:                                         LOST 2-1 v Bolton                                     WIN 0-1 v QPR

League position:                                13^th                                                             4^th

Prediction:                                          Swansea City 1-1 Chelsea

First goal scorer:                                Nathan Dyer 

Last meeting:                                      Chelsea 4-1 Swansea City – September 2011

 

Aaron Aquilina
@P_D_L_P