Match Preview: Man United vs Swansea City

Red Devils Advocate
Apr 29, 2017
3 min read

We welcome relegation threatened Swansea City to Old Trafford this Sunday in an early kickoff at 2:00 PM EAT.

We have a chance to jump into third place with a win - above City and Liverpool at least for a few hours before the rest of the teams take to the field this weekend.

It will be our third Premier League game in 7 days which obviously is coming just 62 hours after a tiring Manchester derby.

However that's the fun of football, and for us we enjoy more when we have game after game after game....for instance this will be our 57th match in all competitions this season, while Chelsea have played only 43 matches so far.

And like Michael Carrick emphasized after the derby, there's no reason to mourn over the congested fixture list.

“We’ll have to be ready for Sunday. It’s what we do and it’s what we’re here for. The kick-off time is no excuse.”

Any latest team news? Yeah sure...

We all know Marouane Fellaini will not feature for the next 3 games as he begins his suspension for butting Aguero in the derby.

We are also aware that Tim Fosuh Mensah dislocated his shoulder in the last minute of Thursday's goalless derby.

That means he faces an extended period on the sidelines alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcos Rojo, Juan Mata, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling.

The visitors could be boosted by the return top fitness of midfielders Jack Cork and Leroy far as well as defender Martin Olsson who missed their recent match with Stoke City.

The Swans boast a powerful front-man in the shape of Fernando Llorente who scored his 10th goal of the season at the weekend.

They also have set piece specialist Gylfi Sigurdsson who has been involved in almost over half of their goals this season.

We are unbeaten in 24 games matching our own record set in the 2010/2011 season a year we went on to win the title.

We'll break that record if we avoid defeat against Swansea as expected.

Thursday's clean sheet against Man City means we've only let in 24 goals this season, only Tottenham (22) have conceded fewer.

Meanwhile, Swansea have been conceding goals for fun and no wonder last week's win over Stoke represents their only win in their last 7 games.

They remain 2 points off safety with only 4 league games remaining and they still have to play relegation rivals Sunderland soon.

What's our head to head like?

Well they maybe deep in trouble but they have won in 2 of their last 4 visits to Old Trafford.

We have a better overall record however, having played 11 times, we have won 7 times, drawn 1 and lost 3 times. Those three times coming during the Moyes and LVG era.

Any match facts from Opta? Yes.

United have won back-to-back Premier League meetings with Swansea, this after losing the previous three all by a 2-1 scoreline.

Wayne Rooney has had a hand in six goals in his last six Premier League appearances against Swansea (two goals, four assists).

Gylfi Sigurdsson could become the first player to score in three consecutive Premier League away appearances at Old Trafford since Sergio Aguero in April 2015. Indeed, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Viduka are the only other players to also achieve this feat.

Paul Clement has won six of his 15 Premier League games in charge of the Swans, giving him the best win ratio of any manager for the Welsh side in the competition (40 per cent).

No ground has seen more draws in the Premier League this season than Old Trafford (nine). The only season that United drew more home league games was 1980/81 (11).

United will break a new club record for the longest unbeaten run within a single top-flight season, should they avoid defeat in this match (25 games).

The rest of the fixture list this Sunday reads

Everton v Chelsea (4:05 EAT)

Middlesbrough v Manchester City (4:05 EAT)

Tottenham v Arsenal (6:30 EAT)