Aston Villa must have thought they were going to see out a 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace on Boxing Day, but instead were undone by a last minute breakaway goal by Dwight Gayle. Prior to this they had dominated possession and did well keeping Palace out, but they did allow seven of 12 shots on goal with only three of those blocked. With 65% possession they needed to do better defensively to keep Palace from getting so close to goal. On the offensive side they were without the misfiring Christian Benteke and had only ten shots with four of those on target. This loss made it four consecutive Premier League losses and leaves them winless in six of their last seven.
Swansea City travelled to Stamford Bridge to face a Chelsea team that has begun to build a solid defense following a string of mistakes. This was quite apparent in the game with Swansea keeping 55% of possession but only managing to get eight shots. The problem from there was their inability to create good chances with only one of those shots actually on target. Scoring has become an issue lately with Michu now out for a couple months and having not played as well this season as last. In recent weeks they have only managed to score more than one goal in the EPL in their last win, 3-0 against Newcastle United. In their last six matches away from home they have only scored more than once in their 2-1 win over Fulham and four times have been held to no goals.
What to expect
Aston Villa had previously focused on playing long balls downfield but against Crystal Palace actually put 420 of their 533 passes short. This is very close to Swansea’s 432 of 528 short passes on Thursday, with Swansea being the team with the most passes this season. It seems likely that Aston Villa will attempt to use long balls again against Swansea, especially considering how much Swansea tends to dominate possession (season average of 59%) coupled with Villa’s inability to create good goal scoring chances against Crystal Palace.
Ashley Westwood is back available following a suspension and will go straight back into a side that have lost 4 matches on the bounce. Key players Ron Vlaar and Christian Benteke are still major doubts, however, so Lambert has limited options with which to switch things up. The back four may remain unchanged but Villa may switch to a 4-3-3 with the ineffective Andreas Weimann the man to drop out.
Spaniard Alvaro was given the nod at Stamford Bridge but Wilfried Bony could return to the side in the absence of the injured Michu this time out. Nathan Dyer and Michel Vorm are also unavailable, though Laudrup did rest some places last time out so he has some fresh for this match. Chico, Ben Davies, Jonathan De Guzman and Pablo Hernandez could all return to the starting XI at Villa Park.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups
Match Prediction
Neither of these sides have won in their last 4 matches but the hosts certainly need the points more after defeats to Fulham, Stoke and Palace already this month. Swansea have had a tougher run of fixtures and while this game may be tight, with both sides missing key players, there’s little doubt that the Welsh outfit have more quality in their squad right now.
Aston Villa 0-1 Swansea City