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Kick-off time: 12:30am (IST), September 17, 2013
Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea
Referee: Michael Oliver. Assistants: S Long, P Kirkup. Fourth Official: R East
Brendan Rodgers takes his Liverpool side to his former club Swansea City, and will attempt to continue their 100% winning run in the Premier League. Daniel Sturridge has scored the winner in each of Liverpool’s victories, while the defence has maintained clean sheets in all the matches so far. Liverpool have never won their opening four games in Premier League, and Rodgers’s team will seek to set a new mark.
In contrast, Michael Laudrup’s Swansea City have endured a tough start to the season where they lost their opening two games. However, the team managed to turn things around against West Brom in the previous match and will be keen to carry the momentum into the game against Liverpool.
Recent league form: (most recent match mentioned first)
Swansea City: WLL
Last league result – 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns
Liverpool: WWW
Last league result – 1-0 win over Manchester United at Anfield
Absentees:
Swansea City: Neil Taylor (injured – ruled out), Nathan Dyer (injured – doubtful)
Liverpool: Luis Suarez (suspended), Sebastian Coates and Aly Cissokho (injured – ruled out), Kolo Toure and Joe Allen (injured – doubtful)
Likely Line-ups:
Swansea City
Swansea had purchased Jonjo Shelvey from Liverpool in the summer transfer window, and the player will be keen to show his former employers that they made a mistake by selling him. Swansea’s other new signing Wilfred Bony will lead the team’s attack, with support from Michu.
Likely Swansea City starting line-up
Liverpool
New signings Victor Moses and Mamadou Sakho are likely to start the game in place of Iago Aspas and Jose Enrique, while Martin Skrtel should retain his spot in the starting XI after impressing in the game against Manchester United.
Likely Liverpool starting line-up
Stats and trivia:
Stats courtesy WhoScored.com
- Liverpool have won their last 5 matches in the Premier League
- Swansea have failed to win their last 6 home matches in the Premier League
- Liverpool are 1 victory short of their 400th win in the Premier League
- Liverpool have kept a clean sheet in 6 of their last 7 matches in the Premier League
- Liverpool have won with a 1 goal margin in their last 4 away matches in the Premier League
Manager talk:
“We have a very difficult start. That’s why West Brom was so important. We need to get some points just to stay in there right now, and then we have a run of fixtures against teams who I would say are in our league.
The Premier League is our priority. I use the words ‘daily bread’ because it’s here that we have to survive and then do well. The domestic cups are something extra, and the Europa League, this year for us, is a great bonus. But at this moment, the Premier League is absolutely our priority.”
- Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup
“We’ve jumped three barriers already this season that were tough games; how we’ve done in those games bears no resemblance to the game on Monday. We have to approach the game with the same vigilance as we have done in those games. It will be a tough game but we’ve got belief and confidence. It’s important to maintain that. We have to be vigilant now. It has been a good start but we can be better.
We’ve shown in all three of our games at certain stages, the qualities that we want from our team. The quality of our football has been good in parts. That sort of commitment and passion and desire to win games and resilience has been there. That’s something that we need to consistently do and something we have shown since January. It’s just more of the same and we’ve got to keep it going.”
- Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers
Last season’s corresponding fixture:
Liverpool were frustrated with a 0-0 draw on their previous visit to the Liberty Stadium, in a game where Jose Enrique’s close-range effort was ruled offside, and Raheem Sterling’s volley hit the crossbar.
Prediction:
Liverpool to continue their winning run with a 1-0 win with Daniel Sturridge scoring the only goal of the match.
