Stoke City v Swansea City Barclays Premier League Date - Saturday 2 December 2017 Time - 3:00 PM Venue - Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent Following their expected defeat away at the hands of Chelsea on Wednesday evening, next up for the Swans is a daunting away trip to the Britannia Stadium - a venue where the Swans have never won in the Premier League - to face fellow strugglers, Stoke City. The Swans are 19th in the table with 9pts, 4pts behind Stoke in 16th. Whilst the Swans were going down 0-1 at Stamford Bridge, Stoke were on the wrong end of a 0-3 home defeat at the hands of Liverpool. Mohamed Salah came off the bench to score twice and secure an ultimately comfortable away victory for Liverpool that moved Jurgen Klopp's side up to fifth in the Premier League. Senegal winger Sadio Mane gave the Reds a controversial early lead, dinking the ball into the net after a marginal linesman's call. Since their first meeting on Christmas Day 1925, the Swans and Stoke have played each other on 68 occasions, with Swansea winning 22, Stoke winning 25 and 21 draws. Additionally, it is 16 years since the Swans last won at the Britannia, a 2-1 victory in League Division Two, courtesy of goals from Jason Price and Kristian O'Leary. James O'Connor netted a late consolation for the Potters. In the corresponding match last season, Stoke ran out comfortable winners 3-1. Wilfried Bony scored his first goal for Stoke before Wayne Routledge headed the visitors level in a frenetic first half in which the hosts hit the post three times. The volume of Stoke chances eventually told as visiting defender Alfie Mawson turned Ramadan Sobhi's shot into his own net, and Bony then nodded in a third after Joe Allen's shot was saved. Turning to Saturday, both sides will be desperate to get a result and Wilfried Bony will be keen to open his account for the Swans following his unsuccessful loan spell at Stoke last season - apart from his brace against the Swans! My heart says 1-1 with Bony getting off the mark in his second spell with the Swans, but my head says 2-0 to Stoke - and as usual an ex-Swan will be on the scoresheet: step forward Joey Allen.........
Another defeat, Hughes will be targeting this game to get his team back on track, I wonder if Bony will be motivated well for this game?.........
It’s really sad that we now go to a Swans match expecting to lose. Clement has been given far too much time to try & put things right and should have gone months ago. All the delay has done is exacerbate the situation, given us less points, less managers to select from, and less time for any new manager to assess the squad before the January window. I plan on going tomorrow to get tortured again but it’s getting harder to be enthusiastic anymore with the dross being served up.
