Swansea City vs Fulham - Match Preview
Swansea will be looking to return to winning ways in their home clash against Fulham this afternoon after the Welsh team were humbled by Yakubu and the rest of his Blackburn team-mates last week.
Swansea will be looking to return to winning ways in their home clash against Fulham this afternoon. The Welsh team were humbled by Yakubu and the rest of his Blackburn team-mates last week after suffering a 4-2 defeat at Ewood Park, however Fulham come off the back of a much more fortuitous result, securing a 1-0 victory over Liverpool. Striker Danny Graham's return should boost the Swans despite Leroy Lita's best efforts leading the line, including a well taken headed goal in the previous fixture, Brendan Rodgers will probably look to his record signing to start the game. Whether it is Graham or Lita starting, scoring has become a problem as of late for Swansea. The two goals scored last week will no doubt be encouraging but they are among the lowest scorers in the division and have suffered similar plights in the past, but the challenge of the Premier League is certainly affecting some of their regular scorers in the past, notably Scott Sinclair. The U21 international scored an impressive 27 goals in all competitions last season but has only managed to score from the penalty spot so far this season. In a recent interview, Sinclair claimed "In the Championship you might have four or five chances but in the Premier League you have one or two and you have to put one away" indicating his drive to get out of this rut in front of goal. Coming into the match an important factor to Swansea is their home record, a record that may not include many goals scored, but also includes a mere two goals conceded and only one loss. Despite this impressive statistic, recent form has not been as impressive. Six points from their last seven games indicates that there is certainly a blip in form for Swansea and after the wake up call at Ewood Park, Rodgers will no doubt be looking to use it as motivation to kickstart a good festive period of results. The visitors have already started the often tough month of December with a surprise win over Liverpool last Monday and will be looking to make it two consecutive wins today. One big factor of their success could be the fitness of Danny Murphy. The talismanic creative midfielder is often integral to Fulham's plans and his absence could affect their chances at the hard to breach Liberty Stadium. With or without Murphy, its no doubt that Fulham do have firepower across the field to break the deadlock today. Players such as Clint Dempsey, Bryan Ruiz, Bobby Zamora and Andy Johnson have all proved their worth in front of goal so Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm may have a busy game.