Swans To Struggle At Home

Both teams are looking to turn around ailing fortunes in this Saturday’s evening Premier League kick-off…

Form
Swansea’s unravelling continued with a 2-1 defeat at Stoke last Sunday, although there was a hint of fortune about the way in which the Potters equalised from the penalty spot. Nevertheless, Garry Monk’s side are now without a win in five Premier League games and have picked up just two points in that period after taking nine from their opening three fixtures.

On the plus side, striker Wilfried Bony has now scored two goals in his last two games. Nathan Dyer remains the club’s top scorer, however, with three for the season, while Gylfi Sigurdsson is amongst the top assist providers in the division with six for the season.

Leicester also arrive here following a run of poor results. Since beating Manchester Untied in that epic 5-3 encounter the Foxes have lost 2-0 at Crystal Palace and 1-0 at Newcastle, with a home 2-2 draw against Burnley sandwiched in between.

Striker Leonardo Ulloa scored five goals in the opening five games of the season but has since failed to muster a shot on goal in the subsequent three.

Nigel Worthington’s side have managed only one clean sheet this season and have scored only one away goal in four Premier League matches this campaign.

Team News
Jordi Amat, Leon Britton and Rory Donnelly are all sidelined through long-term injuries, while Ashley Richards and Dwight Tiendalli will undergo late fitness tests having missed recent games for the hosts. Jonjo Shelvey returns from suspension.

Matthew Upson is the only injury problem for the Foxes after the former Stoke and West Ham man was required to undergo surgery on his foot at the beginning of August.

Head-to-Head
This will be the first meeting between the two clubs since they last crossed paths in the Championship in 2010/11. Each of the last seven league and cup meetings have been won by the home team in a run of fixtures dating back to 1986.

Recommended Bets
The home win is a shade of odds on at 20/21 and I can see why given Leicester’s poor away form.

However, I also think that Swansea are perhaps being given a little too much respect in the market and that they are still living off the fruits of that impressive start that they made to the campaign.

The question that we need to ask is whether the opening three games, or the subsequent five are the real Swansea City?

At the odds, I think it is worth assuming that the recent form trend is more akin to reality and we should therefore back either a Leicester win at 16/5 or take the 10/11 about Leicester-Draw in the Double Chance market.

Recent results mean that both managers will likely see this as a game they want to win, rather than one where they’d be happy to avoid defeat. We should consequently expect an open and attacking game of football and accordingly back more than 2.5 goals at odds of 20/23.