SOUTHAMPTON V SWANS St Marys Stadium, Southampton Saturday 12th August 2017 - 3pm Referee: Mike Jones The Swans kick off their 2017/2018 Premier League season with a trip to the South Coast to visit Southampton at St Marys Stadium. The team that was favourite to be relegated at the end of the 2011/2012 season now look forward to our seventh season in top flight football. The days of buckets being passed around to play players wages have been replaced by turning down offers of £40 million pound for players. How times have changed! A full house is expected at St Marys with the Swans taking approximately 3000 fans and all Travel Club buses full. For Southampton, finishing 8th in the Premier League and getting to the final of the Football League Cup last season was not good enough for an ambitious Club Board and Claude Puel was duly despatched from the Premier League. The Saints had a great away record last year, but will be keen to vastly improve their dreadful home record, something which probably cost Puel his job. His replacement is former Liverpool player Mauricio Pellegrini. After retiring in 2006, Pellegrino has managed or coached at Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Valencia again, Estudiantes de La Plata and Club Atlético Independiente. In 2016 he managed Alaves to the final of the Copa del Rey for the first time ever, where they lost 3-1 to Barcelona. He's got a big job on his hands this year. Never mind Gylfi Siggurdson or Neymar, the longest transfer saga this summer has been that of Virgil Van Dijk. Tapped up by Liverpool and courted by Chelsea, the Dutchman will be a big loss to the Saints back four after he had an outstanding 2016/17 season. Although boasting a strong squad, perhaps the Saints stand out player is Italian International Manolo Gabbiadini. After a great start to his Saints career a serious injury curtailed his season but he should be up and running for the Swans clash. He may be joined by Mario Lemina from Juventus who is on the verge of signing for the Saints. Saints Possible Line Up: Forster, Cedric, Yoshida (or Bednarek if Yoshida doesn’t recover from injury), Stephens, Bertrand, Romeu, Davis(c), Ward-Prowse, Tadic, Redmond, Gabbiadini Subs: Taylor, Targett, Bednarek, Lemina, Austin, Boufal, Long Swans v Saints Premiership Head to Head P: 10 W: 2 D: 2 L: 6 F: 5 A: 11 Points: 8/30 Since the Saints achieved promotion to the Premier League in the 2012/2013 season the Clubs have played each other 10 times with the Swans not being very impressive. Eight points out of a possible thirty with the only wins being a 1-0 at St Marys courtesy of a Jonjo Shelvey thunderbolt in 2015 and last years impressive home win at the Liberty marked by a superb Gylfi Sigurrdson strike which saw the Swans start climbing out of the relegation zone. At St Marys the Swans record is P: 5 W:1 D:1 L:3 F: 2 A: 7 Pts: 4/15 31/01/17, 20:45 Swansea City - Southampton 2 : 1 18/09/16, 15:15 Southampton - Swansea City 1 : 0 13/02/16, 16:00 Swansea City - Southampton 0 : 1 26/09/15, 16:00 Southampton - Swansea City 3 : 1 01/02/15, 17:00 Southampton - Swansea City 0 : 1 20/09/14, 16:00 Swansea City - Southampton 0 : 1 03/05/14, 16:00 Swansea - Southampton 0 : 1 06/10/13, 14:30 Southampton - Swansea 2 : 0 20/04/13, 16:00 Swansea - Southampton 0 : 0 10/11/12, 16:00 Southampton - Swansea 1 : 1
That's not a Southampton line-up that would frighten the life out of the opposition, so buoyed by yesterday's effort against Sampdoria I'm going for a 1-1 draw (Gylfi to get the Swans goal from a free-kick)
Fancy our chances with Llorente out and Siggy not playing (I'm assuming?) but worry about our defence if Yoshida is injured. Not been paying much attention to who you have signed, how will you lot likely line up? Oh and btw I'd say the line up for us in the OP is pretty much spot on. Only other who might come in is Boufal.
Siggy Siggy Siggy! Oi Oi Oi! Siggy Siggy Siggy! Oi Oi Oi! Siggy! Oi! Siggy! Oi! Siggy Siggy Siggy! Oi Oi Oi!...................................................................................
Fab Naughton , Fernandez , Mawson , Olsson ..............Britton ................Carroll '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Fer Routs '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Abraham .................Ayew
booked my train ticket this morning, would would be more than happy with a point. 1-1 Gabbiadini and Tammy to score
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/gylfi-sigurdsson-set-miss-start-13456741 Utter nonsense! Gylfi is still our best player and should be in the squad. He's our player until a valuation is met, we should and need to play him.
My starting eleven would be the same as started against Birmingham. I.m still concerned we haven't signed another right back or striker.
We now also have to sign players that will at least match Gylfis goals and assists, plus his work rate around the pitch.
I believe it will be the 11 that started against Sampdoria and we will go down to a comfortable 3-1 defeat.
My starting eleven would be the same as started against Birmingham. Meant Sampdoria. The Siggy saga is addling my brain.