Stoke City vs. Swansea City Preview

Stoke will be out to stop their Premier League rot when they face Swansea City at the Brittania Stadium on Saturday February 26.

The Potters have won just one of their last six fixtures in the top flight but will surely be glad of the visit of Swansea who have been miserable on the road for the majority of the season – picking up just two wins from twelve away games.

It is the Swans solid home form which has been the key to their success since promotion and up until a few weeks ago, Stoke also held the same profile of being an extremely formidable outfit on their own turf.

A recent home reversal however against Sunderland has left Stoke with a mediocre record of just four victories from a dozen games at the Brittania and it seems as if the fortress it once was is now no more.

Boss Tony Pulis will surely be keen to restore his side’s home reputation and his squad will at least have the confidence of a cup win at Crawley to give them a little momentum.

Stoke’s last outing at the Brittania, despite being a defeat, was actually a rather creditable performance considering that Valencia only managed to escape with a narrow 0-1 success.

Swansea should provide slightly less daunting opposition and Stoke won’t get too many better opportunities to get back on track.

Their league form overall, however, is slightly alarming when taking into the equation how notoriously solid they had been since making the transition from the Npower Championship.

Swansea are more or less safe from relegation and wedged in mid-table, they will be keen to surpass all expectations by finishing the campaign in the top ten.

They certainly won’t fear the trip to face the Potters and could excel if the match turns into a war of attrition. Stoke also have the Europa League and a recovery mission against Valencia to think about so it would be no surprise if the Swans were slightly more up for the fight.

This fixture should be a gritty encounter if nothing else as both teams are renowned for being physical and a single goal may be all that is needed to take the spoils.

Out of all of the weekend’s fixtures in the Premier League, this seems one of the more likely to end in a draw however slight preference goes to Brendan Rogers’ men looking at the pre-match odds.

Swansea beat West Brom when last away from home which was no mean feat considering that Albion went on to destroy Wolves 1-5 immediately afterwards.

The level which Swansea have maintained over the course of the season has been impressive and their industry and work rate gives them the nod at 3/1 over a Stoke side showing signs of fading away. Assessing how close this game could be, as suggested, there shouldn’t be too many goals so under 2.5 looks an obvious punt at 5/6.

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20/02/2012     © Frixo 2024