The English FA Cup quarter-finals take place this weekend and we have three games to look forward to on Saturday. One of those matches sees the defending Premier League champions, Manchester City, travel to south Wales to take on Swansea City of the Championship.
Swansea City are currently 15th in the Championship and although they should be safe from relegation this season, they have very little to play for other than the FA Cup.
The same cannot be said of Manchester City, who are still fighting on three fronts, with the FA Cup being just one of four competitions they could win this season.
Swansea City suffered a 3-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion on Wednesday night and that result means they have lost three of their last four matches in the Championship. The home fans will be happy if they can take Manchester City to penalties but will be hoping they do not see a repeat of the awful penalty miss they endured at the Hawthorns.
Despite losing three of their last four, all three defeats have come away from home and Swansea City are undefeated in their last seven home games in all competitions. There have been five wins, including each of the last three and one of those was at home in the FA Cup against Brentford.
Swansea City have scored 2 or more goals in four of their last five home matches in all competitions but have kept just three clean sheets in their last eleven at the Liberty Stadium.
Manchester City continued their pursuit of the Champions League in mid-week as they crushed Schalke 7-0 at home to win the tie 10-2 on aggregate. It was another fantastic performance from Pep Guardiola’s team and they will be full of confidence ahead of this game.
Trends show Manchester City have won each of their last ten games in all competitions including the penalty shootout success over Chelsea in the League Cup final. Having tasted defeat at Newcastle United in the Premier League, Manchester City have won each of their last four away matches in all competitions.
This will be their second away game in the FA Cup this season having defeated Newport County 4-1 in the fifth round. However, the Citizens cannot afford to be complacent having lost at Wigan Athletic last season.
Team news and Swansea City are monitoring the fitness of striker Oliver McBurnie, who has been suffering from illness. Leroy Fer, Joe Rodon and Martin Olsson will definitely miss out due to injury.
Manchester City will travel without Kevin De Bruyne and Fernandinho who are injured. Aymeric Laporte could start having made his return from injury in mid-week along with Gabriel Jesus, Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden, John Stones and Fabian Delph.
Despite making several changes, Manchester City will field a strong team for this game and given the current form of both sides, the Premier League outfit should have little difficulty in overcoming Championship opposition.