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Swansea v Leicester
Swansea v Leicester, Sat 21 Oct 15:00
Coming up after the International break we have two successive home matches within the space of three days, Leicester and Watford.
First then is Leicester, who were relegated from the Premier League on the final day of last season with Everton just about winning out.
Leicester lost key midfielders James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and Youri Tielemans during the summer to big transfers out, otherwise they kept most of their team from the Premier League together.
They also brought in new head coach Enzo Maresca, assistant to Pep Guardiola’s at Manchester City and what a fine job Maresca is doing so far. He replaced Brendan Rodgers who left by mutual consent after four years in charge.
They’ve won a record 10 of their first 11 games so far this season, amassing 30 points and conceding just 6 goals in the process. Their 5 straight away wins, conceding only 3 goals, include 1-4 drubbings of Southampton and Blackburn. They are a possession based team that operate in a 4-3-3 formation to good effect.
So, the question is how do the Swans become the first team to halt the Foxes perfect away record? With great difficulty I’m thinking.
We are no mugs ourselves with 4 straight wins under our belts after a poor start to the season, but will the gap in class between the two sides be too much to overcome. Coupled with our spate of injuries to key players it will be an uphill task but not impossible. Football is a funny old game and often turns up surprise results. Come on the Swans!
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With Wales losing in the rugby World Cup yesterday we need some good news on the round ball front, starting with Wales v Croatia tonight and the Swans next Saturday.
It looks as if Leicester are doing a Burnley of last season, but like their new manager Maresca said after their one defeat so far, a 0-1 home loss against Hull:
“We cannot think that we will win every game, defeat is normal in football.”
I am hoping Leicester have another “normal” defeat next Saturday!
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Sorry boys I can’t see us winning this one. We can but hope that Leicester have an off day. I’d take the draw right now as maintaining the unbeaten run is important.
We have to stop the ageing but still lethal Vardy if we are to get anything out of this match, in my opinion.
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Here’s Michael Duff’s pre-match Press Conference today:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T4jZQM...ture=emb_title
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Swansea: Carl Rushworth, Josh Key, Harry Darling, Matt Grimes (c), Jerry Yates, Jamal Lowe, Jamie Paterson, Josh Tymon, Charlie Patino, Liam Cullen, Bashir Humphreys.
Subs: Andy Fisher, Kristian Pedersen, Jay Fulton, Mykola Kuharevich, Kyle Naughton, Liam Walsh, Harrison Ashby, Ollie Cooper, Cameron Congreve.
Leicester: Mads Hermansen, James Justin, Wout Faes, Harry Winks, Jamie Vardy (c), Stephy Mavididi, Abdul Fatawu, Ricardo Pereira, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Jannik Vestergaard, Wilfred Ndidi.*
Subs: Jakub Stolarczyk, Conor Coady, Cesare Casadei, Marc Albrighton, Kelechi Iheanacho, Harry Souttar, Hamza Choudhury, Patson Daka, Yunus Akgun.
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Swansea 1 (Grimes 20’) - Leicester 3 (Vestergaard 44’, Fatawu 63’, Iheanacho 87’)
Unfortunately bad news, we lost, conceded 3 goals and drop from 12th to 17th in the table.
The difference in class was telling with their tricky wingers and fast pace.
We scored first, a shot by Grimes that possibly took a deflection, but we couldn’t hold the lead and a corner ball hit Lowe on the waist and bounced into the path of their giant centre-back who bundled it in.
We had some chances, Cullen hit the bar, Darling headed over when well placed from a corner, and Lowe had a shot saved at full stretch by Hermansen.
Outclassed in the end but some good signs that we are improving. A chance on Tuesday to put this result behind us and to get some points on the board, with Watford the visitors.
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