please log in to view this image ............................................... please log in to view this image Swansea City................................... vs ...................... Aston Villa The Liberty Stadium Swansea Referee Neil Swarbick Sun 27-11-11 13:30 PM KO For travel info/info on the stadium click HERE For links to watch the game online, click HERE Welcome one and all to the match thread for the game between Swansea City and Aston Villa. I await to be stand corrected, but the last time I believe these two teams met was during a testimonial for legendary Swans stopper Roger Freestone, which was quite the match to behold. Now retired (sadly) ex-Wales, Carmarthen Town and Aston Villa right back Mark Delaney was up against Alan Curtis for periods of that match, and it says more about Curtis' enduring levels of guile and technique than Delaney's defensive capabilities that on the day Curtis did, with all due respect, make Delaney look a bit silly on numerous occasions! My enduring memory of that day though, it has to be said, was of Roger Freestone playing up front in Walter Boyd's (of lightning quick sending off fame) shirt for the last 10 or 20 minutes! The Match; Swansea are at home for the second game in succession, and will be looking to take maximum points against a Villa team who are without an away win in their last six games away from home. Last time out against Manchester United the Swans didn't do themselves any favours in gifting their more esteemed opponents a goal early on, which more or less killed the game as a contest. United are famously good at seeing out games when leading, and gifting the reigning champions a goal on ten minutes is not the ideal way to go about trying to get a result. Brendan Rodgers will no doubt be emphasising the importance of a solid team performance in this game, as two home losses in a row will no doubt go some way to weaken the "Fortress Liberty" tag that the Swans stadium has picked up in the last few seasons. Aston Villa arrive in South Wales looking to avenge a defeat away at Spurs, where most people would agree they were by far second best. Having said that, Tottenham are looking a very impressive outfit this season, and one only has to look at the Spurs teamsheet to understand that any team coming away from White Hart Lane with points this season will do so after either having had a little slice of luck, or after having had one of their performances of the season. Alex McLeish will no doubt be reinforcing this to his players, and will be fully expecting his team to be more competitive in this fixture. Prior Form; (most recent at top) Swansea City 0 -1 Manchester United Premier League Liverpool 0 - 0 Swansea City Premier League Swansea City 3 -1 Bolton Premier League Wolves 2 - 2 Swansea City Premier League Norwich 3 - 1 Swansea City Premier League Tottenham Hotspur 2 - 0 Aston Villa Premier League Aston Villa 3 - 2 Norwich City Premier League Sunderland 2 - 2 Aston Villa Premier League Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Brom Premier League Manchester City 4 - 1 Aston Villa Premier League Team News; Swansea have no fresh injury concerns, and players like Kemy Augustien and Stephen Dobbie will no doubt be chomping at the bit to be included in the starting eleven. Steven Caulker is likely to be fit and ready for inclusion, but as to whether he'll displace Garry Monk is another matter. Alan Tate and Ferrie Bodde remain on the long-term casualty list, but aside from that there is no fresh cause for concern for Brendan Rodgers. Aston Villa are sweating on Chris Herd and Stilian Petrov, both pushing to be fit after picking up calf and hamstring injuries respectively while the game comes too soon for Nathan Delfuenso and Adam Lichaj, who are both set to miss out. Trivia; - "Courtesy" of Opta Completely guessed lineups; Swansea Vorm Rangel Taylor Williams Monk Britton Gower Allen Sinclair Dyer Graham Aston Villa Given Hutton Warnock Collins Dunne Petrov Delph Heskey Agbonlahor N'Zogbia Bent Key Battles; Angel Rangel vs Gabriel Agbonlahor Two of the Premier League's best names go head to head this weekend, and I feel how Rangel copes with the outright pace of the Villa forward will go a long way to determining the outcome of this game. Stifle the threat of the marauding Agbonlahor, and the Swans could well win this game. However, Rangel, while pacy at full tilt, can't be accused of being quick off the mark, and he'll need to use all his nous to keep his opponent in check. A high profile blunder last week against Manchester United means the spotlight may, unfortunately for Rangel, be shining on the ex-Terrassa player a little more brightly. Brendan Rodgers ahead of the game; Chris Herd ahead of the game;
Analysis; For Swansea to return to winning ways at home, they need to forget about the previous outing against Manchester United and focus firmly on the job in hand. With Bent, Agbonlahor and N'Zogbia to deal with, the Swans rearguard will have to be on top form if they're to pick up another clean sheet at home, and the aforementioned players, coupled with the bull-in-a-china-shop technical ability of Emile Heskey, means that it really will be no mean feat if the Swans come away with an unbreached goal. I'm worried about the Villa attack, if I'm honest. Villa seem to blowing hot and cold at the moment, but nobody can deny the talent they have at their disposal in attack. As I mentioned eariler, I think (as long as Agbonlahor plays on the left) that Rangel will be a very, very busy man, to the point where we may not see him in attack so much on Sunday. The Swans will, as usual, look to retain possession and starve Villa of the ball, thereby limiting the amount of attacks they're exposed to, but the danger would be to get comfortable knocking the ball around at a sedate pace, only to be stung by a lightning quick counter-attack. In the centre of the field, I expect Delph and Petrov, despite their best efforts, to be outpassed by the Swans midfield trio, as Heskey is, no matter how far you stretch your imagination, not a midfielder. If the Swans can control the centre of the park hopefully this will stop the Villa midfielders from releasing their pacy attackers, which should go a long way to making sure of another clean sheet at the Liberty stadium. Out wide, Dyer & Sinclair will be up against Warnock and Hutton, who are definitely more agricultural than avant-garde. Hutton, in particular, I expect to have a torrid time at the hands of the pint-sized Dyer, and that will be a battle to keep close eyes on. N'Zogbia should be up against Neil Taylor, and it'll be a good test of the left-back's abilities, providing a stern examination as to the credibility of his burgeoning reputation in South Wales. Up front it'll be Graham vs Collins & Dunne, and Bent vs Williams & Monk. Obviously, on paper, the latter looks more likely to result in goals. That said, Graham will be in a confident mood after collecting 4 goals in recent matches (despite not netting in the last two games) and he'll be looking to find the back of the net here. The Villa CB's can't be accused of having blistering pace, so Graham might look to take on the centre-backs more than he normally might. In contrast, Bent has pace to burn and will no doubt look to get in behind the Swansea backline and expose the lack of pace, particularly in the case of Garry Monk. If the Swans manage to keep Bent quiet for 90+ minutes, it'll be a testament to the tactical performance, and positioning, of the Swans centre-backs as much as anything else. Iechyd Da. Scott Scottswan's famously biased, ill-fated and banned prediction; Swansea City 2 - 1 Aston Villa Please sponsor me for Movember HERE - raising money for prostate cancer research.
Quality thread again Scott. Another big test at home, but I think we will just about sneak this one. Hopefully Villa scouts weren't watching last week, so we will have a bit more time on the ball. Having said that, if Hutton plays right midfield like he did against Spurs, Villa will probably be sitting back and just playing for the draw. That will suit us, but could prove to be a boring game for the neutral. Swans 1-0
Hutton at right back is diabolical if you ask me. Teams like Villa shouldn't be coming for a draw...maybe McLeish will have learnt his lesson from Monday night? Also, I apologise if there's any inaccuracies/typos in the article...I was a bit half cut last night!
Nice one again Scott. Bit concerned about this one, Villa smarting from the game at Spurs and looking to get their first away win of the season. I agree that the trio of Agbonlahor, N`Zogbia and Bent is going to make for a very busy afternoon for our defence. Our attacking and scoring options need to be sorted, otherwise we are going to be chasing the game. Sinclair needs to up his game and Allen should be getting around the box a bit more and start doing more of what we know he can do. I`m hoping for a win, but I think the best we`ll do is get a draw.
A real tester to see where we stand in this league. Swansea win (always the optomist) Nice thread again Scott, shame it's wasted on the complete lack of AV followers on not 606. Not expecting much banter!
very tough game that will be harder than the man utd game in that the pressure will be in our court with being favorites, this game is hard to predict as villa have a much stronger more physical players than us, we will probably have the lions share of possession but as we know without going forward and getting the ball to the striker is a waste of time, Sinclair really needs to up his game as so far he was a better player in the championship and maybe he needs to play as an attacking midfield for a while and pass the wingers roll to routledge...im hoping for a win but wont be shocked if we were to lose.
Nice one ScottSwan. In his post-game interview after the reserve's match against Chlsea, Curtis said that Agustien and Orlandi were both subbed following knock/injury so neither may be available for the bench today.
Bit of a blow Orlandi not being available !! Hard game indeed for us, a real test of where we are in this league, i think a draw but a good start from us and we could snatch a win, is caulker fit enough for the bench? i think this could be a hard game for monk and think he could struggle over the 90mins if he doesnt get the right protection from the midfield
Caulker hasn't seen action in the reserves yet. Don't see him coming straight back into the squad unless spurs have a no reserve clause in the loan
I can't wait for this now! If we win by a few goals (not for one second suggesting we will) then we could be up to 8th! Kerazy.
Well as there's no Villa fans, let's stuff them good and proper! And the best place to start is with Collins, so I hope that Rodgers has targeted him, as he's crap! 2-1 to the Mighty Swans................... please log in to view this image
BTW unforgettably I forgot to big you up Scott. I therefore give you my sincere apologies, and furthermore I will flog myself for the full duration of the match... and that's really gonna hurt!
Lee dixons view on swans v villa. One of the few analysts who seems to know what they're talking about. He's gone for 2 all with a Danny graham goal to make it 5 in 7. http://t.co/bBWhpQGB
We'll be 2-0 up after twenty minutes...you can stop once we get a 2 goal lead I don't mind doing the match articles... I think it's good practice as I'm trying to worm my way into a bit of sports journalism. I've been doing a fair bit of stuff for www.sportstonightlive.com, and the WoS said it should be easy enough to get an article in as long as the quality way good! Saweet!
Scott, another cracking article. Make sure you use Dai's phrase "the pressure will be in our court" - priceless I can pretend to be the missing Aston Villa fans We are going to stuff you jacks. We have 2 of the best strikers in the Prem. Your miserable sideways=passing tippy tappy football will come unstuck. 2-0 Villa.
Big words for a team who employ Emile "I used to be a footballer, me" Heskey! Sounds like the pressure will be in our court, anyway! (That was easy!)
From the BBC preview; The Beeb are starting to like us a little bit, then? At least whoever does the previews, anyway...
It was by Martin Fisher - Match of the Day commentator. They have a different BBC commentator doing our game review each week and most of them are very complimentary.
