Swansea extended its winning streak to two games with a gritty victory Saturday over Burnley. The Swans will look to stretch their unbeaten Premier League run to three games when they take on a reeling Tottenham side that is fresh off a heart-breaking loss to Chelsea in the League Cup final.
Read on for a complete preview of this Premier League showdown and while you’re at it, you can check out our preview of the match between West Ham and league-leaders Chelsea here.
[sc:Soccer ]Tottenham vs. Swansea Betting Preview
Where: White Hart Lane, London
When: Wednesday, March 4, 2:45 PM ET
Line: Swansea +395 at Tottenham -172, tie +260; total 2.5 – view all EPL lines
What’s At Stake
A victory by Tottenham on Wednesday will see them leapfrog Southampton into sixth place in the ever-tightening Premier League standings. Swansea, on the other hand, will move to within one point of Tottenham in seventh place with a victory over Spurs at White Hart Lane.
Betting on Tottenham
[sc:Soccer240banner ]It hasn’t been the greatest of weeks for Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino. In a span of just four days, he saw his side booted out in two major competitions, the Europa League and the League Cup. First off, Tottenham were outclassed by Fiorentina in the second leg of their European tie, as they were beaten 2-0 on the night and 3-1 on goal aggregate in the round-of-32 of the Europa League.
Three days later, it was Chelsea’s turn to bring on the pain as Spurs suffered a disappointing 2-0 defeat to the Blues in the League Cup final at Wembley on Sunday night. Although Spurs will be feeling a little downcast right now, Tottenham need to lift their spirits quickly as there’s still plenty to play for in the final third of the Premier League season.
Tottenham remain in the hunt for a coveted Champions League spot as they are just six points behind fourth-placed Manchester United in the league standings with 44 points. In order for Tottenham to make a case for that final European spot, however, they will need to drastically improve on their faltering Premier League form.
Things have taken a turn for the worse for Tottenham ever since their momentous 2-1 win over Arsenal last month as they have grabbed just one point in their last two league outings. They lost 3-2 to Liverpool at Anfield before dropping points against West Ham at home with a 2-2 draw.
They will fancy their chances of ending their slump against Swansea, however, as they have yet to lose to the Welsh side in seven Premier League meetings. Out of those seven contests, Tottenham has won an incredible six times, outscoring Swansea 13-5 in those contests.
Expected to lead Tottenham’s attack in this match is English phenom Harry Kane. The 21-year-old has been on fire for Spurs this season, scoring a team-high 14 goals, the fourth-best mark in the league this season.
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Betting on Swansea
There’s just no stopping Swansea’s ascent atop the league standings.
Swansea moved up to eighth place in the Premier League table after recording a narrow 1-0 victory Saturday over relegation-threatened Burnley. The victory enabled the Swans to reach the 40-point mark, the figure clubs aim for at the start of every season to avoid the dreaded drop.
It’s quite incredible to think that Swansea managed to achieve this feat with still 11 games remaining in their league schedule. Credit for that goes to manager Garry Monk who has transformed his team to a tough defensive unit that is difficult to break down on any given game day this season.
The Swans are eighth in the league in scoring defense, conceding a total of 34 goals this season. The main reason behind their solid defensive record is the excellent form of their goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski. The former Arsenal keeper has kept a total of nine clean sheets out of the 26 games he has played thus far this season, fourth-best in the Premier League.
He will have a battle in his hands, though, against a Tottenham side that is sixth-best in the Premier League in goals scored at home this season, netting 26 this campaign. That will not faze Swansea one bit, though, as they have already proven that they can mix it up with the top clubs in the league this season.
Manchester United learned that lesson the hard way when they suffered their second defeat this season to Swansea last week. The Swans relied on their swift counter-attacks to upset a United team that dominated majority of the possession the entire match.
Expect Monk to utilize the same 4-4-2 diamond formation that worked wonders for Swansea in their last two league games. Jack Cork will continue to act as the anchor of Swansea’s midfield four, while Ki Sung-Yueng and Jonjo Shelvey will provide support to Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wayne Routledge and Bafetimbi Gomis in attack.
This shift in formation has already yielded three goals for Swansea and offers a fresh alternative to their tried and tested 4-2-3-1 set-up. They will need all the help they can get especially away from home as they have just scored 12 goals on the road this season, seventh-worst in the Premier League this campaign.
Writer’s Prediction
Tottenham edge past Swansea, 2-1.
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