Everton vs Swansea preview
Swansea City will hope to return to winning ways at the expense of their former manager Roberto Martinez when they host Everton at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.
The Swans enjoyed looking at the table during the international break after defeating Manchester United 2-1, but they suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at Watford last weekend in their return to action.
Manager Garry Monk, who played with and worked under Martinez, is a huge admirer of the Everton boss. In return, the Spaniard has expressed his delight at the work that Monk has achieved since becoming Swansea manager.
While both managers have been publicly exchanging pleasantries during their press conferences, they were also hard at work with their players plotting a way to outwit each other.
In their meetings as managers, Monk and Martinez have generally been involved in tight affairs with their sides drawing in the league on both occasions last season.
Monk ended up with the bragging rights after helping the Welsh club dump Everton out of the Capital One Cup with a comprehensive 3-0 victory at the Liberty Stadium.
The Swans boss knows his charges have to improve if they are to defeat the Toffees on Saturday and is imploring them to re-focus their efforts on their strengths which they failed to do at Watford.
Everton moved above Swansea into seventh last weekend after they defeated champions Chelsea 3-1, thanks to Steven Naismith, who came off the bench to bag a perfect hat-trick.
Martinez has warned Naismith he will need to perform consistently to keep his place in the team because a couple of Everton players are working hard to be regular starters, including Arouna Kone who was impressive in the 3-0 victory at Southampton.
Swansea City team news
- The Swans have a clean bill of health ahead of this encounter.
Everton team news
- Seamus Coleman and Muhamed Besic both picked up slight hamstring injuries against Chelsea but Martinez is hoping to have the pair for the trip to south Wales.
- Bryan Oviedo (knee), Tom Cleverley, Leighton Baines (both ankle), Tony Hibbert (knee), Steven Pienaar (hamstring) and Darron Gibson (ankle) are all sidelined.
Swansea City vs Everton prediction
Monk will probably restore Jefferson Montero to the starting XI as a left attacking midfielder keeping the width in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Andre Ayew is likely to be the right attacking midfielder drifting inside to support Bafetimbi Gomis in attacking the service from the flanks.
Jack Cork could continue as the main sitting midfielder, allowing Jonjo Shelvey to push on from the base of midfield and join Gylfi Sigurdsson in linking up play centrally and sliding cute passes down the sides of Everton defenders.
Coleman is expected to shake off his hamstring problem, so he and Brendan Galloway may operate as the full-backs in a similar 4-2-3-1 formation for Everton.
Naismith’s heroics will probably earn him a start as a left attacking midfielder, cutting inside to leave space out wide for Galloway to exploit.
In central midfield, there should be no changes to the side that defeated Chelsea, so Gareth Barry and James McCarthy may start as the central midfielders with Ross Barkley looking to run at defenders with the ball in the number 10 position.
Romelu Lukaku is likely to be the centre forward, with Kone making diagonal runs inside from the right to offer a target for long balls alongside the Belgian centre forward. That allows the Toffees to be more direct which has helped them this term.
This should be a good game of football with both teams keen on working the ball patiently. Swansea are likely to enjoy slightly more possession, but Everton will have the momentum of the big win last weekend so this could be a score draw.
Score prediction
Swansea City 2-2 Everton
