Swansea City 0 - 1 Southampton
Venue: The Liberty Stadium, Swansea
Referee: Jonathan Moss (c**t)
Date: Saturday the 20th of September 2014, 3pm kick off.
Goal scorers
Swansea City:
Southampton: Wanyama '80
Bookings
Swansea City: Bony (Yellow and a straight red?)
Southampton: Fonte, Bertrand, Yoshida, Schneiderlin.
Injuries
Swansea
- Amat out for 6 weeks
- Leon Britton ruled out for further four weeks with injury
Southampton
- With no fresh injury concerns Southampton are likely to field the same team that thrashed Newcastle last time out.
- That will mean a second start in Saints colours for Toby Alderweireld.
- Jack Cork could hold on to his place but Victor Wanyama and James Ward-Prowse are both vying for a starting berth.
Lineups;
Swansea
-------------------Fabianski------------------
-----------Fernandez-------Ash---------------
Rangel----------------------------------Taylor
-------------Shelvey-------Ki----------------
----------------------------------------------
Dyer---------------Siggy-------------Routledge
------------------Bony-----------------------
Bench; Tremmel, Bartley, Jazz, Carroll, Montero, Emnes, Gomis.
Subs: Montero for Dyer ('59), Emnes for Ki ('85).
Southampton
------------------Forster----------------------
-------------Fonte-----Yoshida----------------
Clyne----------------------------------Bertrand
----------Ward-Prowse-----Cork----------------
-----------------Schneiderin-------------------
-----Long-----------------------Tadic----------
-------------------Pelle------------------------
Bench; Davis, Targett, Gardos, Wanyama, Davis, Mayuka and McQueen.
Subs: Gardos for Yoshida ('45), Davis for Cork ('64) and Wanyama for Ward-Prowse on 69 minutes.
MATCH STATS
Swansea City..........................Southampton
44%.................... Possession..................56%
5.......................... Shots ................... 11
2 ......................... On target .............. 4
2 ........................... Corners ............... 4
11 ........................... Fouls .................. 15
KEY BATTLES;
Wilfried Bony vs Toby Alderweireld-
Despite some murmurings concerning missed chances Bony has played very well in these opening fixtures and I fully expect him to come back into the starting lineup. He'll be up against Alderweireld who is a Belgian International (37 caps) on loan from Atletico Madrid. He came up at Ajax and was being watched by a number of top European clubs (Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpool and Napoli) before signing for Atletico...so he is certainly no mug.
He can play left and right-back as well as centre-half. Saints have been utilising him at centre-half, he's 6ft2, strong, pacy and can play. His duel with Bony should be fascinating and Bony is due a goal.
Siggy vs Victor Wanyama/Cork-
Siggy has made a superb start on his return and is the link man that makes the whole attacking engine purr for us. He struggled in the last game against Chelsea after a good opening half an hour...IMO Mourinho decided that we were on top because Siggy was finding too much space, he took Schurrle off, switched Oscar to the right and moved Fabregas from CM to AM. This allowed Mourinho to bring on Ramires to partner Matic in DM. Together they shut down that space and then once momentum had shifted in Chelsea's favour Ramires was able to help press us high up the pitch and once again leave Siggy to Matic...
Tomorrow Siggy will be up against another beast of a defensive midfielder in Wanyama (similar to Matic.) Finding space will be difficult, but what worries me is if Koeman partners Cork with Wanyama. Together they could shut down Siggy's space and press us high up the pitch much as Ramires and Matic did. The battle in midfield, as always, will be absolutely key to the outcome of the game.
Ki vs Morgan Schneiderlin.
Morgan Schneiderlin is a top, top, quality player who could easily be playing CL football. He is their playmaker, scores goals from midfield and is also a physical sort of athlete who works his nuts off. Ki, as our DM, is going to have his hands full....Ki hasn't let us down yet this season but we saw against Chelsea what a dangerous player from midfield can do (Fabregas carved us open on times) and Schneiderlin is that kind of dangerous midfielder.
Neil Taylor vs Nathaniel Clyne / Shane Long
Taylor (despite the substitution of Schurrle) did not have the best of times at Chelsea....ragged is how I would describe some of his defending. He'll be in for another stiff test tomorrow afternoon. Shane Long will be relentlessly chasing, closing down and running in behind the defence. He will be looking for any chinks of light in the channel between Taylor and Williams...the young Irishman doesn't seem to tire either. Taylor will need to be on it.
If that wasn't enough to cope with Taylor will also have the Saints' young pacy full-back Nathaniel Clyne bombing down that flank.
Big game required.
Federico Fernandez vs Grazziano Pelle / Dusan Tadic
Fernandez will get his chance to start. It could be the start of a beautiful relationship with Williams. Fernandez couldn't have had a hotter baptism of fire than the second half vs Chelsea last week. I'm sure he'll be looking forward to a home League debut in a winnable game. To me he looks good in the air, strong and a decent footballer on the deck....but (and I may be mistaken), not the quickest. This is a potential problem as neither is Ashley.
Fernandez will be directly up against Pelle, who is large and a handful, and will also have Dusan Tadic coming down the channel between himself and Rangel. Both are pacy, both have a trick, and both (although Pelle in particular) have made very good starts to life in the Premier.
Will it be a dream debut or a tough afternoon?
QUOTES
Garry Monk (Barclays Premier League Manager of the Month for August 2014)
On Chelsea;
"We have to be more clever," Monk said.
"We caused our own problems at times in the second half with our decision-making. With the power Chelsea have, they can hurt you at any time and if you switch off for a split-second you get punished.
"We did that a bit too much in the second half on Saturday and couldn't quite get a grip to get back in the game."
For all Chelsea's class, Monk felt Swansea might have held on for a special result had they looked after the ball a bit better.
"Early on in that second half we should have played a better pass, we should have played an easier pass to deal with and we would have got through," he added.
Ronald Koeman -
"I am very happy with the squad that we have," said the former Ajax, Benfica and Valencia boss.
"We like to show that, and we showed it in a very good way against Newcastle (last weekend).
"With the last two signings — Toby Alderweireld and (Saido) Mane — we have a squad maybe more competitive than last season. But I don't know that for sure because I wasn't the manager last season."
Ashley Williams (Swansea Captain) -
"I think the squad this year is a lot stronger, to be honest," the South Wales Evening Post quotes Williams as saying. "We've got more quality and we've got better personalities.
"That's not taking anything away from the guys last year, but we've got a lot of good guys in there. It's a good place to play at the moment."
"It's not up to me to decide who plays," said the Swansea captain, "but I'm just happy that we've got quality.
"We've got two players that are very good. If they can start playing together they could be a dominant force up front, but the way we play is with one striker at the moment.
"If we need to make a change to get an edge on an opponent we should be able to do that with those two there."
The Chelsea reverse brought an end to Swansea's perfect start to the season, but Williams is far from downhearted.
"I think we showed for a while at Chelsea that we can not only live with the best in the league but outplay them," he added.
"They had to make a change. I've been to Chelsea and been turned over a lot of times, but Saturday was different. In the past we've laid down and I don't think we did that this time."
"We've had two days off, but I and the boys can't wait to get in on Tuesday and start correcting the mistakes," the Swansea captain said. "We lost to a very good side on Saturday. At times Chelsea were too good for us, but we'll work on things and I'm sure when they come down to us we'll be in a better position for them."
Players we share in common
Nathan Dyer, Garry Monk....
RECENT FORM
Liverpool 2 - 1 Southampton (L) -------------------- Man Utd 1 - 2 Swansea (W)
Southampton 0 - 0 West Brom (D) ------------------- Swansea 1 - Burnley (W)
West Ham 1 - 3 Southampton (W) --------------------Swansea 3 - 0 West Brom (W)
Southampton 4 - 0 Newcastle (W) -------------------- Chelsea 4 - 2 Swansea (L)
HEAD TO HEAD:
- Southampton have kept a clean sheet in their last 3 matches against Swansea in all competitions.
- Swansea have seen under 2.5 goals in their last 4 matches against Southampton in all competitions.
- Southampton are undefeated in their last 5 matches against Swansea in all competitions.
SUMMARY
Two of the early season’s top teams go head-to-head at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday, as third-placed Swansea welcome fourth-placed Southampton in the Premier League.
During the summer many believed that Southampton would struggle massively in the new season having sold off many of their star players, but Ronaldo Koeman has so-far defied the doubters at the Saints with two wins and a draw in their opening four matches.
One player whom Southampton kept hold of was French international Morgan Schneiderlin, and he has been the standout performer in the fledging weeks of the season for the south coasters scoring three times already.
Alongside, Dusan Tadic (two assists) has made an immediate impact in the creative left by the summer sales, while Graziano Pelle had done well with three early goals in the league campaign.
Swansea, though, have made an even better start to the season than their opponents this weekend, chalking up three wins and a 4-2 defeat at Chelsea.
The re-arrival of Glyfi Sigurdsson in Swansea’s midfield has been instantly positive, while Nathan Dyer has found his scoring touch with three goals in four games.
At the back, former Arsenal keeper Lukasz Fabianski has replaced Michel Vorm with minimal fuss, while the spine of the team is completed with the ever-solid Ashley Williams at the heart of the defence, while Wilfried Bony (0 goals) is always a threat.
As far as momentum goes, Southampton came into the game having scored four against Newcastle while Swansea shipped four goals in their last match. That said, there doesn’t feel like a great deal to pick between the sides, and this may be one of the hardest games to call in round five of the season.
- From a site called 101GG
STATS:
Swansea City (Currently 3rd place)
- Swansea City have gone 287 minutes of football without a goal against Southampton.
- Swansea are one of only two teams to have won both of their home games in the Premier League this season (alongside Chelsea).
- Nathan Dyer has scored with all three of his shots on target for Swansea this season.
- Gylfi Sigurdsson has assisted four goals in four appearances this season.
Gylfi Sigurdsson
Already looking one of the signings of the summer in his early season performances, last week was the first time this campaign that Sigurdsson didn’t have a direct involvement in a goal during a match – with 5 out of Swansea’s 6 goals in the league – all 6 if you include Wayne Routledge’s volley that came from a headed clearance of a Sigurdsson cross – the the result of an assist or goal for the Icelandic international.
His influence in the final third is the accurate passing – the advanced playmaker behind the striker often has a low passing accuracy due to attempting passes that are not on and forfeiting possession – Sigurdsson’s pass accuracy is 87.4% with 49% (73 out of 149 completed passes) going forwards. With this area of his game strong, it plays to the strengths and playing style of Swansea
Southampton (Currently 4th place)
- Saints did the double over Swansea last season and are unbeaten in five overall against them (W2 D3).
- Southampton are looking to win three games in a row for only the third time since returning to the Premier League in August 2012.
- Graziano Pelle has scored three goals from just six shots on target in the Premier League for Southampton.
Graziano Pellè
With the departure of Rickie Lambert leaving Southampton short in strikers in their squad, new manager Ronald Koeman brought his star forward from previous club Feyenoord. Pellè had excelled during his time in Holland with an incredible record of 50 goals in 57 league matches (55 in 66 in all competitions), but his career in his home country of Italy – a total of 21 goals in 106 appearances – had left reservations over whether Southampton’s number 9 could cope at this level.
The Italian striker currently has 4 goals in 5 matches though in the league and cup, and the physicality he has shown suggests will be threat against every team in the division. Winning 5.25 battles in the air on average per match, this is considerably more than the match average achieved by Rickie Lambert last season (1.76).
Having 3.3 shots per match so far this season, Pellè to score at any time against Swansea on Saturday is valued at 3.17 with Tailorbet.
ODDS:
Swansea to win: 6/4
Southampton to win: 9/5
Draw: 23/10
TV: highlights on BBC1's MOTD
Stream:
Post Match
Swansea manager Garry Monk:
"I would question the first free-kick against Wilfried Bony. Whether it was a yellow or not I don't know. The second one was a foul but there was no malice in it. It puts us in a difficult position.
"We were by far the better team in the first half. And in the second, the only shot they really had on goal was the one they scored from, which was the one time we switched off and got punished. But we will pick ourselves up and go again."
Swans captain Ashley Williams:
On Bony sending off...
"He will bounce back. He's disappointed now, but I've got no worries about Wilf, he's one of the best professionals ever," said Williams.
"He trains like a warrior every day and I'm sure he'll recover.
"It's disappointing, all the lads are disappointed and after we worked so hard, to come away with nothing is hard to take.
"There's stuff we can take out of the game like last week and we've got a week until the next league game to do that."
On the game...
"This one hurts a little bit more (than last week). We don't like to lose two on the spin, no-one does, and it was at home as well," said Williams.
"We feel like we worked hard, we kept our shape and we limited them to only a few chances.
"They're a passing team so obviously they had a lot of possession, but they didn't get anything clear-cut, there were a couple of headers and the goal.
"We'll talk about this game and then look to the next one. We won't stew about this one.
"There are lessons to be learned quickly because we've got another game and we'll look to that."
"We had to keep our shape and hit them on the break. But we couldn't really hit them so we wanted to keep our shape and end up with the draw," said Williams.
"In the end we nearly got to the 90, but we didn't so we'll have to work on that.
"It only takes a second to score a goal and we didn't do our defensive duties on that play.
"It's disappointing.
"We should be able to do that for as long as it takes and we didn't.
"You can't fault the lads' effort. We were dead on our feet out there and it was tough.
"We're not going to point fingers, we can all take blame.
"As a squad we didn't shut them out when we feel like we should have.
"We'll look on the positives."
On playing with Fernandez...
"I thought he did really well. I enjoyed playing with him. He's obviously a really good player. It's difficult when you have a new partnership. It will take time to get used to a few things," added Williams.
"We've been talking a bit and tried to nail a few things down.
"It's going to take longer, but congratulations to him because he's a very good player in my eyes."
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman post match:
"It was difficult. We didn't play well in first 20 minutes. Swansea played well and we lost a lot of balls. It was complicated, but finally the result counts and it is a very good win.
"I don't like to talk about yellow and red cards. When it was 10 v 11 it was more easy for us. We didn't create a lot but we scored the goal."
Following day on Monk's dissatisfaction with the lack of a card for Jose Fonte...
"I can understand why he is shouting like that because maybe it will have an influence on the decision of the referee.
"But it wasn't a yellow. If you give one for that kind of action, I think he has to show 30 yellow cards in every game.
"It wasn't a very hard game, a tough game, but I think the problem was the yellow cards were shown at the beginning. That was the problem.
"I think for both teams it was sometimes difficult to understand the decisions."
Koeman reckoned Bony may have been a little unfortunate with his first booking.
"Maybe the first one I don't think he exactly meant to make that foul," he added.
"Maybe it was a little unlucky, but the second was a yellow card, yes."
"This was a different kind of win for us, a difficult one against a strong Swansea team," said former Benfica and Valencia boss Koeman.
"When it was 11 v 10, it changed — always a red card is difficult for one team and maybe a bit better for the other team.
"After the red card, we had the patience to create some possibilities and we won thanks to a great goal.
"The most difficult thing in the first half was that we lost too many balls. We had some problems with the rotation of Swansea's midfield and we didn't win enough second balls, so it was difficult for us. But after the red card we had a lot of pressure and we stayed patient.
"We didn't create a lot, but always you are capable of scoring goals if you are patient."
Venue: The Liberty Stadium, Swansea
Referee: Jonathan Moss (c**t)
Date: Saturday the 20th of September 2014, 3pm kick off.
Goal scorers
Swansea City:
Southampton: Wanyama '80
Bookings
Swansea City: Bony (Yellow and a straight red?)
Southampton: Fonte, Bertrand, Yoshida, Schneiderlin.
Injuries
Swansea
- Amat out for 6 weeks
- Leon Britton ruled out for further four weeks with injury
Southampton
- With no fresh injury concerns Southampton are likely to field the same team that thrashed Newcastle last time out.
- That will mean a second start in Saints colours for Toby Alderweireld.
- Jack Cork could hold on to his place but Victor Wanyama and James Ward-Prowse are both vying for a starting berth.
Lineups;
Swansea
-------------------Fabianski------------------
-----------Fernandez-------Ash---------------
Rangel----------------------------------Taylor
-------------Shelvey-------Ki----------------
----------------------------------------------
Dyer---------------Siggy-------------Routledge
------------------Bony-----------------------
Bench; Tremmel, Bartley, Jazz, Carroll, Montero, Emnes, Gomis.
Subs: Montero for Dyer ('59), Emnes for Ki ('85).
Southampton
------------------Forster----------------------
-------------Fonte-----Yoshida----------------
Clyne----------------------------------Bertrand
----------Ward-Prowse-----Cork----------------
-----------------Schneiderin-------------------
-----Long-----------------------Tadic----------
-------------------Pelle------------------------
Bench; Davis, Targett, Gardos, Wanyama, Davis, Mayuka and McQueen.
Subs: Gardos for Yoshida ('45), Davis for Cork ('64) and Wanyama for Ward-Prowse on 69 minutes.
MATCH STATS
Swansea City..........................Southampton
44%.................... Possession..................56%
5.......................... Shots ................... 11
2 ......................... On target .............. 4
2 ........................... Corners ............... 4
11 ........................... Fouls .................. 15
KEY BATTLES;
Wilfried Bony vs Toby Alderweireld-
Despite some murmurings concerning missed chances Bony has played very well in these opening fixtures and I fully expect him to come back into the starting lineup. He'll be up against Alderweireld who is a Belgian International (37 caps) on loan from Atletico Madrid. He came up at Ajax and was being watched by a number of top European clubs (Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpool and Napoli) before signing for Atletico...so he is certainly no mug.
He can play left and right-back as well as centre-half. Saints have been utilising him at centre-half, he's 6ft2, strong, pacy and can play. His duel with Bony should be fascinating and Bony is due a goal.
Siggy vs Victor Wanyama/Cork-
Siggy has made a superb start on his return and is the link man that makes the whole attacking engine purr for us. He struggled in the last game against Chelsea after a good opening half an hour...IMO Mourinho decided that we were on top because Siggy was finding too much space, he took Schurrle off, switched Oscar to the right and moved Fabregas from CM to AM. This allowed Mourinho to bring on Ramires to partner Matic in DM. Together they shut down that space and then once momentum had shifted in Chelsea's favour Ramires was able to help press us high up the pitch and once again leave Siggy to Matic...
Tomorrow Siggy will be up against another beast of a defensive midfielder in Wanyama (similar to Matic.) Finding space will be difficult, but what worries me is if Koeman partners Cork with Wanyama. Together they could shut down Siggy's space and press us high up the pitch much as Ramires and Matic did. The battle in midfield, as always, will be absolutely key to the outcome of the game.
Ki vs Morgan Schneiderlin.
Morgan Schneiderlin is a top, top, quality player who could easily be playing CL football. He is their playmaker, scores goals from midfield and is also a physical sort of athlete who works his nuts off. Ki, as our DM, is going to have his hands full....Ki hasn't let us down yet this season but we saw against Chelsea what a dangerous player from midfield can do (Fabregas carved us open on times) and Schneiderlin is that kind of dangerous midfielder.
Neil Taylor vs Nathaniel Clyne / Shane Long
Taylor (despite the substitution of Schurrle) did not have the best of times at Chelsea....ragged is how I would describe some of his defending. He'll be in for another stiff test tomorrow afternoon. Shane Long will be relentlessly chasing, closing down and running in behind the defence. He will be looking for any chinks of light in the channel between Taylor and Williams...the young Irishman doesn't seem to tire either. Taylor will need to be on it.
If that wasn't enough to cope with Taylor will also have the Saints' young pacy full-back Nathaniel Clyne bombing down that flank.
Big game required.
Federico Fernandez vs Grazziano Pelle / Dusan Tadic
Fernandez will get his chance to start. It could be the start of a beautiful relationship with Williams. Fernandez couldn't have had a hotter baptism of fire than the second half vs Chelsea last week. I'm sure he'll be looking forward to a home League debut in a winnable game. To me he looks good in the air, strong and a decent footballer on the deck....but (and I may be mistaken), not the quickest. This is a potential problem as neither is Ashley.
Fernandez will be directly up against Pelle, who is large and a handful, and will also have Dusan Tadic coming down the channel between himself and Rangel. Both are pacy, both have a trick, and both (although Pelle in particular) have made very good starts to life in the Premier.
Will it be a dream debut or a tough afternoon?
QUOTES
Garry Monk (Barclays Premier League Manager of the Month for August 2014)
On Chelsea;
"We have to be more clever," Monk said.
"We caused our own problems at times in the second half with our decision-making. With the power Chelsea have, they can hurt you at any time and if you switch off for a split-second you get punished.
"We did that a bit too much in the second half on Saturday and couldn't quite get a grip to get back in the game."
For all Chelsea's class, Monk felt Swansea might have held on for a special result had they looked after the ball a bit better.
"Early on in that second half we should have played a better pass, we should have played an easier pass to deal with and we would have got through," he added.
Ronald Koeman -
"I am very happy with the squad that we have," said the former Ajax, Benfica and Valencia boss.
"We like to show that, and we showed it in a very good way against Newcastle (last weekend).
"With the last two signings — Toby Alderweireld and (Saido) Mane — we have a squad maybe more competitive than last season. But I don't know that for sure because I wasn't the manager last season."
Ashley Williams (Swansea Captain) -
"I think the squad this year is a lot stronger, to be honest," the South Wales Evening Post quotes Williams as saying. "We've got more quality and we've got better personalities.
"That's not taking anything away from the guys last year, but we've got a lot of good guys in there. It's a good place to play at the moment."
"It's not up to me to decide who plays," said the Swansea captain, "but I'm just happy that we've got quality.
"We've got two players that are very good. If they can start playing together they could be a dominant force up front, but the way we play is with one striker at the moment.
"If we need to make a change to get an edge on an opponent we should be able to do that with those two there."
The Chelsea reverse brought an end to Swansea's perfect start to the season, but Williams is far from downhearted.
"I think we showed for a while at Chelsea that we can not only live with the best in the league but outplay them," he added.
"They had to make a change. I've been to Chelsea and been turned over a lot of times, but Saturday was different. In the past we've laid down and I don't think we did that this time."
"We've had two days off, but I and the boys can't wait to get in on Tuesday and start correcting the mistakes," the Swansea captain said. "We lost to a very good side on Saturday. At times Chelsea were too good for us, but we'll work on things and I'm sure when they come down to us we'll be in a better position for them."
Players we share in common
Nathan Dyer, Garry Monk....
RECENT FORM
Liverpool 2 - 1 Southampton (L) -------------------- Man Utd 1 - 2 Swansea (W)
Southampton 0 - 0 West Brom (D) ------------------- Swansea 1 - Burnley (W)
West Ham 1 - 3 Southampton (W) --------------------Swansea 3 - 0 West Brom (W)
Southampton 4 - 0 Newcastle (W) -------------------- Chelsea 4 - 2 Swansea (L)
HEAD TO HEAD:
- Southampton have kept a clean sheet in their last 3 matches against Swansea in all competitions.
- Swansea have seen under 2.5 goals in their last 4 matches against Southampton in all competitions.
- Southampton are undefeated in their last 5 matches against Swansea in all competitions.
SUMMARY
Two of the early season’s top teams go head-to-head at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday, as third-placed Swansea welcome fourth-placed Southampton in the Premier League.
During the summer many believed that Southampton would struggle massively in the new season having sold off many of their star players, but Ronaldo Koeman has so-far defied the doubters at the Saints with two wins and a draw in their opening four matches.
One player whom Southampton kept hold of was French international Morgan Schneiderlin, and he has been the standout performer in the fledging weeks of the season for the south coasters scoring three times already.
Alongside, Dusan Tadic (two assists) has made an immediate impact in the creative left by the summer sales, while Graziano Pelle had done well with three early goals in the league campaign.
Swansea, though, have made an even better start to the season than their opponents this weekend, chalking up three wins and a 4-2 defeat at Chelsea.
The re-arrival of Glyfi Sigurdsson in Swansea’s midfield has been instantly positive, while Nathan Dyer has found his scoring touch with three goals in four games.
At the back, former Arsenal keeper Lukasz Fabianski has replaced Michel Vorm with minimal fuss, while the spine of the team is completed with the ever-solid Ashley Williams at the heart of the defence, while Wilfried Bony (0 goals) is always a threat.
As far as momentum goes, Southampton came into the game having scored four against Newcastle while Swansea shipped four goals in their last match. That said, there doesn’t feel like a great deal to pick between the sides, and this may be one of the hardest games to call in round five of the season.
- From a site called 101GG
STATS:
Swansea City (Currently 3rd place)
- Swansea City have gone 287 minutes of football without a goal against Southampton.
- Swansea are one of only two teams to have won both of their home games in the Premier League this season (alongside Chelsea).
- Nathan Dyer has scored with all three of his shots on target for Swansea this season.
- Gylfi Sigurdsson has assisted four goals in four appearances this season.
Gylfi Sigurdsson
Already looking one of the signings of the summer in his early season performances, last week was the first time this campaign that Sigurdsson didn’t have a direct involvement in a goal during a match – with 5 out of Swansea’s 6 goals in the league – all 6 if you include Wayne Routledge’s volley that came from a headed clearance of a Sigurdsson cross – the the result of an assist or goal for the Icelandic international.
His influence in the final third is the accurate passing – the advanced playmaker behind the striker often has a low passing accuracy due to attempting passes that are not on and forfeiting possession – Sigurdsson’s pass accuracy is 87.4% with 49% (73 out of 149 completed passes) going forwards. With this area of his game strong, it plays to the strengths and playing style of Swansea
Southampton (Currently 4th place)
- Saints did the double over Swansea last season and are unbeaten in five overall against them (W2 D3).
- Southampton are looking to win three games in a row for only the third time since returning to the Premier League in August 2012.
- Graziano Pelle has scored three goals from just six shots on target in the Premier League for Southampton.
Graziano Pellè
With the departure of Rickie Lambert leaving Southampton short in strikers in their squad, new manager Ronald Koeman brought his star forward from previous club Feyenoord. Pellè had excelled during his time in Holland with an incredible record of 50 goals in 57 league matches (55 in 66 in all competitions), but his career in his home country of Italy – a total of 21 goals in 106 appearances – had left reservations over whether Southampton’s number 9 could cope at this level.
The Italian striker currently has 4 goals in 5 matches though in the league and cup, and the physicality he has shown suggests will be threat against every team in the division. Winning 5.25 battles in the air on average per match, this is considerably more than the match average achieved by Rickie Lambert last season (1.76).
Having 3.3 shots per match so far this season, Pellè to score at any time against Swansea on Saturday is valued at 3.17 with Tailorbet.
ODDS:
Swansea to win: 6/4
Southampton to win: 9/5
Draw: 23/10
TV: highlights on BBC1's MOTD
Stream:
Post Match
Swansea manager Garry Monk:
"I would question the first free-kick against Wilfried Bony. Whether it was a yellow or not I don't know. The second one was a foul but there was no malice in it. It puts us in a difficult position.
"We were by far the better team in the first half. And in the second, the only shot they really had on goal was the one they scored from, which was the one time we switched off and got punished. But we will pick ourselves up and go again."
Swans captain Ashley Williams:
On Bony sending off...
"He will bounce back. He's disappointed now, but I've got no worries about Wilf, he's one of the best professionals ever," said Williams.
"He trains like a warrior every day and I'm sure he'll recover.
"It's disappointing, all the lads are disappointed and after we worked so hard, to come away with nothing is hard to take.
"There's stuff we can take out of the game like last week and we've got a week until the next league game to do that."
On the game...
"This one hurts a little bit more (than last week). We don't like to lose two on the spin, no-one does, and it was at home as well," said Williams.
"We feel like we worked hard, we kept our shape and we limited them to only a few chances.
"They're a passing team so obviously they had a lot of possession, but they didn't get anything clear-cut, there were a couple of headers and the goal.
"We'll talk about this game and then look to the next one. We won't stew about this one.
"There are lessons to be learned quickly because we've got another game and we'll look to that."
"We had to keep our shape and hit them on the break. But we couldn't really hit them so we wanted to keep our shape and end up with the draw," said Williams.
"In the end we nearly got to the 90, but we didn't so we'll have to work on that.
"It only takes a second to score a goal and we didn't do our defensive duties on that play.
"It's disappointing.
"We should be able to do that for as long as it takes and we didn't.
"You can't fault the lads' effort. We were dead on our feet out there and it was tough.
"We're not going to point fingers, we can all take blame.
"As a squad we didn't shut them out when we feel like we should have.
"We'll look on the positives."
On playing with Fernandez...
"I thought he did really well. I enjoyed playing with him. He's obviously a really good player. It's difficult when you have a new partnership. It will take time to get used to a few things," added Williams.
"We've been talking a bit and tried to nail a few things down.
"It's going to take longer, but congratulations to him because he's a very good player in my eyes."
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman post match:
"It was difficult. We didn't play well in first 20 minutes. Swansea played well and we lost a lot of balls. It was complicated, but finally the result counts and it is a very good win.
"I don't like to talk about yellow and red cards. When it was 10 v 11 it was more easy for us. We didn't create a lot but we scored the goal."
Following day on Monk's dissatisfaction with the lack of a card for Jose Fonte...
"I can understand why he is shouting like that because maybe it will have an influence on the decision of the referee.
"But it wasn't a yellow. If you give one for that kind of action, I think he has to show 30 yellow cards in every game.
"It wasn't a very hard game, a tough game, but I think the problem was the yellow cards were shown at the beginning. That was the problem.
"I think for both teams it was sometimes difficult to understand the decisions."
Koeman reckoned Bony may have been a little unfortunate with his first booking.
"Maybe the first one I don't think he exactly meant to make that foul," he added.
"Maybe it was a little unlucky, but the second was a yellow card, yes."
"This was a different kind of win for us, a difficult one against a strong Swansea team," said former Benfica and Valencia boss Koeman.
"When it was 11 v 10, it changed — always a red card is difficult for one team and maybe a bit better for the other team.
"After the red card, we had the patience to create some possibilities and we won thanks to a great goal.
"The most difficult thing in the first half was that we lost too many balls. We had some problems with the rotation of Swansea's midfield and we didn't win enough second balls, so it was difficult for us. But after the red card we had a lot of pressure and we stayed patient.
"We didn't create a lot, but always you are capable of scoring goals if you are patient."
