Swansea City 1 - 1 Crystal Palace Liberty Stadium Swansea Referee: Mike Dean Sunday the 2nd of March 2014, 4.30pm kick off. Goal scorers De Guzman (25') Murray (82') Injuries Definitely out Palace; Swansea; Michu, Possibly out Palace; Jerome Thomas? Swansea; Leon Britton, Jonjo Shelvey, Kyle Bartley and Nathan Dyer. lineups; Swansea ---------------------Vorm--------------------- ---------------Chico--------Ash--------------- Rangel-------------------------------B. Davies -------------------------Britton---------------- --------------De Guzman---------------------- Dyer---------------Pablo-------------Routledge --------------------Bony---------------------- Bench; Tremmel, Amat, Taylor, Canas, Emnes, Vazquez and Lita (!) Crystal Palace --------------Speroni--------------- Ward-----Dann------Delaney----Parr ----Jedinak---Digkacoi----Ledley--- Ince---------------------------Bolasie --------------Chamakh--------------- Subs; Hennessey, Gabbidon, Bannan, Thomas, Jerome, Gayle and Murray. Key Battles; Jedinak v Britton - Jedinak is Palace's leader. An all action, physical, dynamic midfielder. Will Leon get the better of him? Ince v Davies - From what I've seen of Ince I've been impressed. Makes good decisions and knows where the space and the net is. Can Davies shut his fat gob though? (Ince might start behind the striker with Puncheon on the right wing...this would make Palace more dangerous IMO) Bolasie v Rangel - Bolasie can either be unplayable or unplayable (ie. benched). An enigma. I find him exciting when he's on it, bag of tricks. Rangel's seen off better and should be fresh but he'll have some defending to do. Dann and Delaney v Bony. ...and it will take 2 of them to stand a chance too! Delaney in particular was awful in the Championship for Ipswich. Put simply Bony is different class to these 2...but; 1) is he fresh enough to bring his class to bear? 2) will he get good enough service or will he Pablo, Routs and Dyer find themselves bogged down in red and blue stripey shirts? QUOTES Tony Pulis - "I watched their game at Liverpool and they played very well." he said "They've been one of the outstanding successes in English football in the last five years without a shadow of doubt. "The way they have run the club and set it up - the new stadium, new training facilities - they have kept the continuity and identity in the football club over a period of time. "Huw Jenkins deserves a lot of credit for the way he's run that football club." Garry Monk - "The idea is to take the disappointment from going out of the competition into Sunday's game," "Hopefully we will get the reaction that we want after our disappointment." "I will request my players give one last mammoth effort before we get a two-week break." "I based my selection for the game against Napoli a little bit on the Palace match because you have to," he said. "As I've said before, it's impossible for me to play the same 11 players every single game in this period. We've had a lot of games, with the Palace game it will be seven games in 21 days, which is a lot to take on for a player, physically." "What I'm asking them to do is very demanding. As a coach you have to bear that in mind." Tom Ince - “They will want to play their fluid type of football and be expansive - but look at the amount of times we counter-attacked West Brom. “It’s different when you play Manchester United because they keep the ball so well. Swansea play similar but are probably not as effective - they haven’t got the Wayne Rooneys and Robin van Persies who, when you do give them the space, will kill you off. We have to nullify what Swansea do and then play our own game. I’m sure Swansea won’t be able to handle what we do." Ben Davies - “We just want to let our football do the talking on the pitch on Sunday and if we win the game we won’t have to make any comments afterwards, we’ll just be able to look at the league table.” Players we share in common Wayne Routledge, Scott Sinclair, Jazz Richards, Kemy Agustien, Chris Coleman, John Salako. PAST THREE MEETINGS: Sunday's match will be only the 18th league meeting of the two sides - Swansea were 2-0 winners in their first top-flight meeting in September 2013. Michu and Nathan Dyer scored the goals. .- We beat them 3-0 home (Pratley and Sinclair x2) and away (Sinclair, Pratley and Allen) in our last season in the Championship 2010-2011 STATS: Swansea City The Swans have won their last two home games, having lost the previous three. They have scored as many goals (seven) in three league games under Garry Monk than they did in the previous eight Premier League matches. Swansea's only league win after a European game this season was against Crystal Palace in September. Wilfried Bony has scored four goals in his last four home games. Crystal Palace Palace are without a win in their last three away matches. Tony Pulis' side have scored a mere five away goals in the league this season. It is the lowest tally in all four professional divisions. No side has lost more Premier League away games this season (10), and they are the only side not to draw an away fixture this term. Dwight Gayle's last-minute winner against Aston Villa on Boxing Day was Palace's last away goal in the league. ODDS: Crystal Palace to win: 7/2 Swansea to win: 4/5 Draw: 5/2 TV:http://firstrows.biz/soccer/swansea-city-crystal-palace-frsd0f53
Palace point of view Richard Foster Crystal Palace: Tom Ince Could Be Our Michu vs. Swansea by*Richard Foster 1 March 2014 1. BLACK SWANS Back in September Palace met Swansea at Selhurst and we were so comprehensively outplayed that the 0-2 score line flattered us. So dominant were The Swans that I remember the sizeable groan of disappointment amongst the Palace fans when four added minutes was displayed on the board as the only thing that could have happened was another Swansea goal or two. The gulf in class was unbridgeable and if someone had said that firstly we would be anywhere near Swansea in the Premier League table and secondly that Laudrup would no longer be manager the men in white coats would have been summoned immediately. But bizarrely there are only two points separating the teams and Michael, like Holloway, ended up hurtling down the Premier League Laundry chute. 2. MISSING MICHU – THE DIFFERENCE Perhaps the biggest difference for Swansea over this period has been Michu’s absence from the starting line-up. He is the conductor of the orchestra and when he is on song the team hums, but without him they appear to not be able to strike the right note. Although Bony is a muscular front man who weighs in with a fair few goals, he is not the type of player who links play so skilfully and silkily as Michu. When we met first time Swansea had just returned from a Europa League game against Valencia but they were much the more energetic team. Again on Sunday they will be playing just a few days after the match in Naples and hopefully they will be drained rather than energised by their trip to Southern Italy. 3. THE MIDDLE INCE Tom Ince could be our quasi-Michu as he can operate in behind a striker and on the evidence of just two games he seems far more effective in a central role rather than being played out wide. As away wins have been as common as hen’s teeth this season, we must give young Tom the licence to roam and inflict damage from the middle. This probably means that Murray will return to the bench and keep his powder dry for the last 20 minutes. 4. MASSIVE WING SPAN One aspect still missing from this new, improved Palace has been the lack of threatening wing play. In the Championship last year we carried a dual threat with both Bolasie and Zaha (whatever happened to him?) tearing down the flanks and causing mayhem. This season Bolasie and Puncheon have been inconsistent, only sporadically dangerous and if we are to come through these last dozen games successfully the wide men need to deliver. 5. PURPLE PULIS Sunday’s meeting at the Liberty Stadium is a litmus test of how far each club have travelled over the last six months and may well prove to be a watershed moment. If we can glean anything out of this game then we can point to the Pulis-inspired progress. The game against Man United last weekend was disappointing as they were there for the taking (just look at how they lost so feebly against Olympiakos) but we allowed them to rebuild their fragile confidence and the more the game wore on the more inevitable the result. So up against a Swansea team rejuvenated under Gary Monk a more positive approach could reap dividends and rather than being passive we must try to dictate the play otherwise we will get well and truly swamped by the Swans again.
Pulis has done a good job so far, as lots (me included) thought they were dead and buried not so long ago. I think the honeymoon period is over though and the next few games will show just how far he's taken them. Saying that, their three wins from their last six have been against relegation rivals and although they've only won one of the last three, those two defeats were to Arsenal and Man Utd. I'm going for a Swans victory here (famous last words), even accounting for the very recent Napoli travelling. We proved we could perform after the last Thursday/Sunday short turnaround and Palace do not carry the threat of Liverpool (understatement). As long as we can convert our chances we'll win.
I see us winning this 2-1, though no doubting the Pulis factor, he's a cagey old fox, but I'm sure our boys will want to shut up the little ince upstart......... Tidy Match Thread Terror, well done....................
Im worried...no not about losing but chico possibly getting sent off or any other if they take this ince comment to far, Fair play to palace they have been the most improved side in recent months and apart from ince must be respected, This is a good test for monk and the lads and with the passionate fans that are back to their best at being vocal we should win this 2-0...Monk must make sure our players keep their discipline intact that has greatly improved in recent games...
Pressing when Palace have the ball is going to be crucial in this game, if fit Leon must play. We must keep clear heads and play our calm posession game and frustrate them, if we nick an early one and they have to come at us we could score a hat full, but if our boys get too wound up we could easily lose. Hope Monk gets the tactics right for this one.
Really need three points against palace for apart from the obvious we need to turn these very good performances into wins.Hopefully Britts and Dyer are fit but heres hoping for a swans win
3 more wins and the odd draw will probably see us safely through and with our better goal difference then i would say we are 80% safe, Win tomorrow then i cant see anyone else at the bottom matching us. I think fulham are definitely down and Cardiff probably down which adds towards our favour...
I see Trundle has been giving his view on Ince in the EP, and fair play to him it's a good read!.................
A defeat,and we're not. Then watch the tears flow. The recent floods will pale into insignificance should Pulis mastermind an upset.
that can happen in any game between palace and the next 3 or 4 games. It wont make much of a difference what happens, we are in a strong position compared to the rest after today's results.....All we have to do is keep ahead and we are good enough for that....We have managed 4pts out of 6 so we just need to do the same for the rest of the season...
Always happy to oblige,Dragon. Just adding an alternative scenario,which I hope doesn't prevail,but get your box of kleenex to hand,on the off chance!!!
There will be no crying from me, and no crying from him!................... please log in to view this image
Anybody know where or what has happened to Rhodri Williams? Can't remember the last time I saw him play.
We will have a number of cardiff fans cheering us on tomorrow hoping we can beat palace, so as its ST Davids day today we should give them a nice present and oblige them with a win...
We don't do things the easy way so a fight to the finish of the season is probable , only when our defence is at 100% and Bony remembers where the goal is while all of them play as a tight unit do we win well which happens only now and then so today better be one of those days or doubts may start creeping in. Saying that we are a better team than those around us so if we could give out a hiding to inces mob it would be a huge lift after going out of the cups .
