Swansea vs Arsenal Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Oct 22, 2015 @ 02:00 pm

Garry Monk lifted some of the pressure that was apparently piling on his shoulders with a win against Aston Villa that summoned Tim Sherwood’s fate as manager. Arsenal scored 2 in as many minutes to beat Everton 2-1 that has put them joint top of the Premier League.

Swansea finally managed to get a first victory since 30 August when they beat Manchester United 2-1. It has been a long time coming but as they did against Manchester United, Swansea came from a goal down to secure a 2-1 victory. It looked to be the ‘Ayew’ show as Aston Villa’s Jordan Ayew scored the opener before his brother Andre, scored the decisive winner after Gylfi Sigurdsson levelled with a superb free kick. It was the first time in Premier League history that brothers have scored for opposing sides in the same game. The 3 points were very significant for Swansea who jumped up above Chelsea and Stoke in the process into 12^th. Once again Sigurdsson and Ayew found the back of the net which means along with Bafetimbi Gomis, these 3 players have contributed all 13 Premier League goals between them for Swansea.

Arsene Wenger’s side were top for just under 24 hours after a 2-1 victory against Everton where they scored their 88^th and 89^th Premier League goals over the Toffees. No side in the league has scored more against an opponent other than Manchester United who have also scored 89 goals over Everton. Wenger elected to start Olivier Giroud over Theo Walcott after the Frenchman opened the scoring in the crucial 2-0 victory over Bayern Munich midweek and he again found the back of the net to put Arsenal in front after a sublime pass from Mesut Ozil. It was Ozil’s 7^th assist in the league and he overtook David Silva in top position for assists. Arsenal have now won 4 on the bounce but conceded for the first time in 4 matches after Ross Barkley’s deflected shot wrong footed Petr Cech.

The Welsh club have beaten Arsenal in the previous 2 meetings and in 14 meetings altogether they have an identical record with 6 wins each and 2 draws. Arsenal have won 9 of their last 11 away matches in the Premier League and are only 2^nd to West Ham this season for results away from home. The visitors are top of the charts in terms of shots per game (19.7) and also pass accuracy with 85.8%. 85% was the figure Jonjo Shelvey recorded for pass accuracy against Aston Villa at the weekend and Shelvey is 5^th in terms of passes record in the Premier League (577) with Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla leading with a staggering 832 passes in 10 league appearances.

Per Mertesacker missed the win over Everton through illness and should be back in the starting line-up for the trip to Wales this Saturday. Aaron Ramsey picked up a hamstring injury in the Munich game and he will be out until the end of November and misses the chance to play in front of his native fans. Wayne Routledge is the only player missing for Swansea with a calf strain.

Swansea City

Stats: W-3 L-3 D-4

Recent Form – LLDLW

Arsenal

Stats: W-7 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - LWWWW

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Swansea City (4-2-3-1) – Fabianski, Naughton, Williams, Fernandez, N.Taylor, Shelvey, Ki, Montero, Sigurdsson, A.Ayew, Gomis

Arsenal (4-2-3-1) – Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Sanchez, Giroud

Injury List/Suspended Players

Swansea City – Routledge (inj)
Arsenal – Ramsey (inj), Welbeck (inj), Ospina (inj), Rosicky (inj), Arteta (inj), Wilshere (inj)

Swansea v Arsenal Head to Head

League Positions