by Ian S. Palmer
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Sinking Swansea City will be trying to stop their freefall down the English Premier League standings this Sunday, December 20 when they host West Ham United at Liberty Stadium. Swansea recently fired manager Gary Monk and Alan Curtis is in charge of the club until a suitable replacement can be found. Swansea lost 2-1 at Manchester City last weekend on a last-minute goal and it extended their winless streak to six games with five losses and a draw. West Ham is also on a six-match winless streak with four draws and two defeats after last weekend’s 0-0 home draw with Stoke City.
Swansea City vs West Ham United – bet365 Soccer BETTING LINE:
- bet365 lists Swansea as the current favorites at 11/10 with West Ham 11/4 and a draw at 12/5
Swansea enters the weekend in 17th place with 14 points from three wins, five draws and eight losses. They’ve scored 15 goals and allowed 24 against. At home, they’ve won two, drawn three and lost three with eight goals scored and 12 allowed. They have three draws and three losses in their past six home matches and have two clean sheets on the season while they’ve been shut out seven times. West Ham is in eighth position with 24 points from six wins, six draws and four losses. They’ve hit the back of the net 25 times and allowed 21 goals against. West Ham has four wins, two draws and a pair of defeats on the road with 13 goals scored and 10 conceded. They have five clean sheets on the season and have failed to score on three occasions.
Swansea City vs West Ham United – Head to Head
- These two teams drew 1-1 at Swansea last season while West Ham were 3-1 home victors at Upton Park. West Ham hasn’t lost in their past five encounters and Swansea has won once in the past six. Swansea’s last victory was a 3-0 home win in August of 2012. Overall, the teams have met 50 times in the past with West Ham winning 22, losing 16 and drawing the other 12.
West Ham hasn’t been too bad away from home with just two defeats in their last eight road games while Swansea struggles at home and are winless in the last six at the Liberty. To make matters worse, they’ve been held goalless in four of those home fixtures and in seven of their past 11 league contests. They desperately need points with just one out of the last 18 possible. It’s no wonder Monk was let go from his job with a lone win in the last dozen matches, but they should have had a replacement ready to step in for the ex-manager.
Swansea has a problem with slow starts this season as they’ve scored the game’s opening goal just three times in 16 outings. Their only serious goalscoring threat appears to be Bafetimbi Gomis and if he’s held off the score sheet the team is usually in big trouble. He’s in a slump at the moment with just one goal on his last 21 shots and that came last weekend against Manchester City. West Ham will be without Victor Moses, Dimitri Payet, Winston Reid and Diafra Sakho for the match while Swansea is expected to be without Franck Tabanou.