Swansea City welcome Everton to the Liberty Stadium on Saturday evening knowing they need to take maximum points from this game, if they are to stand any chance of avoiding relegation this season.
With Hull City, who are 2 points clear of Swansea in 17th place, hosting Sunderland at the KCOM Stadium, Paul Clement knows his team cannot afford to drop any points, if they are to give themselves a chance of playing Premier League football next season.
Everton come into the match with very little to play for as they are likely to finish in 7th place in the Premier League. Arsenal, who are 2 points clear of them in 6th place have two games in hand and West Bromwich Albion are 14 points adrift in 8th.
Trends show Swansea have picked up just one win in their last eight Premier League games. Having enjoyed a good start under Clement, results have not been good enough and the Welsh club have struggled to get out of the relegation zone. During that run of eight league games, Swansea have lost to Hull, Bournemouth, West Ham and Watford.
All the above games were classed as being winnable matches and the home draw with Middlesbrough was also a poor result.
One crumb of comfort for Swansea fans is their recent home record, which has seen them lose only one of their previous six Premier League games. Four of those games have seen victories, with Southampton, Leicester, Burnley and most recently, Stoke, all losing at the Liberty Stadium.
Everton were poor last time out against Chelsea, which was their second heavy defeat of the season against the potential champions. Ronald Koeman will be looking for a big response from his players as the season draws to a close.
Overall, Everton’s form is decent and they have lost only three of their previous eighteen Premier League games. However, trends show a distinct difference between their home and away form this season.
At Goodison Park Everton have been very good for much of the season but away from has been a different story. The Toffees have won just one of their last eight away Premier League games and it’s this record which has kept them out of contention for the European places this season.
It’s draws rather than defeats which has been the problem for Koeman’s men on the road. Everton have lost just two of their last nine away league games but have failed to convert draws into victories. Everton have drawn against Hull, Stoke, Middlesbrough, Manchester United and West Ham.
Having played well against Manchester United, Clement is unlikely to make many changes to the Swansea starting XI. Jack Cork, Martin Olsson and Leroy Fer have fully recovered from injury and could come into the team but Jefferson Montero is out.
Having made some changes to his usual starting XI against Chelsea, Koeman may revert to a more regular looking team for this game. However, Morgan Schneiderlin and James McCarthy may have to wait until the next match to make a return to the team.
Swansea will be looking to build on their performance at Old Trafford last week but the pressure will be different on Saturday. This is a must win match and Everton are dangerous opponents, especially after their negative result last week. This game will see goals and could finish level, with both teams finding the back of the net.