Super Saturday: Swansea City vs Norwich Preview

Article by e-Norwich City Correspondent Colin Rowe

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Following last weekend’s convincing win over Sunderland, Norwich City will be on their travels again to face a Swansea side in as much a need of points as their Norfolk rivals.

The season which saw Norwich achieve automatic promotion from the Championship and Swansea triumph in the play-offs seems a very distant memory and while Swansea have arguably been the more successful, thanks to their League Cup win and subsequent Europa League campaign, Norwich certainly have the upper-hand in the head-to-head.

With three wins and two draws the Canary’s are yet to be beaten by the Swans in the Premiership and Chris Hughton’s side will be keen to continue this record on Saturday.

While the South Wales team won all the plaudits last season, this term has been far less successful, with the strain of the Europa League paying a telling toll on Swansea’s league form.

This certainly showed in a slightly drab 1-1 draw at Carrow Road shortly before Christmas, which took place a few days after the Liberty Stadium side travelled to St Gallen, although this was back in the days when Swansea were managed by Michael Laudrup.

For Norwich fans this game only lives in the memory for Gary Hooper’s fantastic strike during the first half and for the bizarre error made by Sebastian Bassong, which saw the 6 foot 2 inch defender beaten to a header by the diminutive Nathan Dyer.

Since then both teams have not enjoyed the best luck, which currently sees them occupying the 14th and 15th spots in the league.

The Swans require a win to leapfrog the Canary’s in the table, while a win for the Yellows would see them reach 35 points, a total which could conceivably guarantee top-flight safety for another season.

This said, the huge advantage Swansea has is a far easier run-in than Norwich must face, so this is arguably not a must win game for the Liberty Stadium outfit, while Norwich would probably be content with a draw.

However, this brings us onto the elephant in the room when it comes to City playing away.

As mentioned in a previous blog post, published in the aftermath of the Southampton debacle two weekends ago, the Canary’s currently concede an average of 2.4 goals a game on their travels.

If Norwich are to get anything from this game the defence needs to improve greatly on its previous few outings on the road.

It would be easy to claim Norwich are heading into this game on a high, following the Sunderland win, and so should be looking to build on the last weekend’s performance, but time and time again this season Norwich disappoint away from the comforts of Carrow Road, more often than not following a good result at home.

What Norwich need is a strong defensive performance at Swansea to prove to themselves, the fans and the teams around them in table that they will not be dragged down into the dogfight and are more than capable of holding their own regardless of the opposition.

However, how they are to achieve this is a much more complex question, with City’s defensive frailties on the road a puzzling paradox.

Given the current situation both teams will be keen not to lose this game and while their five Premiership contests have yielded 22 goals it is hard to see a high-scoring affair on this occasion.

There is little news on the injury front for City, with Leroy Fer now the only man on the off-duty list.

With so many players coming back from injury, including Elliott Bennett who is unlikely to feature this weekend, it will be interesting to see who Hughton selects this weekend after the numerous high-profile omissions for the last away game against Southampton.

It is unlikely there will be any major alterations from the team who faced Sunderland, but then again it was a surprise so many were made for the game at St Mary’s which followed an acceptable draw against Stoke.

Overall, expect largely the same team who faced Sunderland, with Johan Elmander most likely to miss the cut, but with a much stronger substitute’s bench than the travelling fans have been used to seeing.

Tactically this is tough to call, with Norwich’s defensive issues on the road and a Swansea team more than capable of getting goals.

Norwich fans might like to see the same attacking intent shown during the first half last weekend, but it is more likely to be a tight and evenly contested game akin to the reverse fixture at the end of last year.

From a Norwich fans perspective most will be happy if we leave the Liberty Stadium having let in less than four goals.

Predicted Line-Up: Ruddy, Martin, Yobo, Bassong, Olsson, Tettey, Howson, Johnson, Snodgrass, Redmond, van Wolfswinkle

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