Clarets v Swans Match Preview.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Clarets v Swans Match Preview.

Venue: Liberty Stadium: Landore, Swansea, Wales, SA1 2FA
Kick-off – 15.00pm – Monday, 2nd January 2023.

The Clarets go into the New Year with a tricky away fixture at Swansea City whilst leading the Championship after another impressive away win at Stoke last Friday night.

This game contains an added pinch of spice because the Swans need to get their own promotion aspirations back on track and the City manager Russell Martin is desperate to atone for the 4-0 reverse his team suffered at Turf Moor back in October. Add into the mix the curious case of Eire international Michael Obafemi of whom Martin claims had his head turned by Burnley’s unsuccessful triple attempt to capture the player’s signature back in August 2022.

Jamie Paterson and Obafemi were both left out of Swansea’s emphatic 4-0 home win against Watford on Friday night; Martin citing the players negative attitude and lack of desire to play for their team. On the other hand, Burnley gaffer Vincent Kompany constantly talks about his team’s “togetherness” and willingness to fight for the cause.

It is difficult with the speed of fixtures to evaluate injury news from the Clarets camp but Kompany’s willingness to rotate his team and Burnley’s enviable squad strength seems to negate the potential problem of players being unavailable through injury. A full-strength Clarets team is not beyond the realms of possibility for this intriguing clash in south-Wales.

One’s to watch: Joel Piroe stepped up to the plate for the Swans in the absence of Obafemi and Paterson, bagging a brace to help shoot down the Hornets and will be hoping to continue from where he left off on Friday.

The Clarets continue to be the Championship’s leading scorers and goals are coming from across the team, Josh Cullen managed to open his account for the season, netting the winner against Stoke on Friday night. Former Swans right-back Connor Roberts, Nathan Tella and Jay Rodriguez pose potent goal threats and I feel there are goals aplenty in this game.

Verdict: An away win seems the plausible outcome to this Monday afternoon encounter, and I fancy the Clarets to grab a win 3-1 at the Liberty Stadium.

Footnote: In the crazy world of football finance, inflated transfer fees and equally inflated player egos it is heart-warming for the Clarets to have available two players for selection on Monday who arrived at Turf Moor from Swansea at relatively modest costs. Former Swans stars Jack Cork and Connor Roberts are now extremely important members of the Burnley squad and will no doubt be eagerly anticipating Monday afternoon’s festive fixture in South Wales. A winning return would be most welcome.

From: The Editor’s Chair – Clarets Mad.

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[sinkov]

According to the possesion stats Sky were showing last week, only three teams in the country have had more possesion than us, strangely one of them was Swansea. So while we clearly make our possesion pay, Swansea don't, not to the same extent anyway.

[Swissclaret]

According to the possesion stats Sky were showing last week, only three teams in the country have had more possesion than us, strangely one of them was Swansea. So while we clearly make our possesion pay, Swansea don't, not to the same extent anyway.

Good point sinkov. One can have 100% possession but if you don’t score it is meaningless.

I am sure that we could do that - Muric to THB to Cork to Cullen to Muric to THB and so on. Boring, negative etc, but the stats would show that we dominated possession.

[outwoodclaret]

Good Preview BT. Looking forward to this game.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Good Preview BT. Looking forward to this game.

Thank you Sir Outwood.