Swansea v Norwich: Goals at a premium at the Liberty

Swansea v Norwich
Friday February 5, 19:45
Sky Sports

Swansea impress in latest victory

Swansea closed the gap on top spot in the Championship with a fine 3-1 victory at Rotherham last time out. January signing Conor Hourihane put the Welsh club in front with a stylish clipped effort, before Matt Grimes lashed in their second from 20 yards. The hosts fought back after the break to halve the deficit but Jay Fulton made the points safe.

Head coach Steve Cooper was pleased with his team's display post-match, saying: "It was really pleasing. We scored three brilliant goals, three class finishes from midfield players from the end of good moves, how we want to play. We're disappointed how we conceded because we try to pride ourselves on first and second balls coming into the box, but fair play to the lads, they calmed down, showed composure and got the two-goal advantage again."

Swansea are now seven league games unbeaten and head into Friday night's fixture just five points adrift of the summit with a game in-hand. A free midweek was welcomed by the hosts who also completed three deadline day deals, bringing in Paul Arriola, Morgan Whittaker and Kieron Freeman to strengthen the squad for the final furlong.

Norwich fail to fire

Norwich failed to score for the second successive Championship encounter as the Canaries were held to a goalless draw at Millwall on Tuesday night. Daniel Farke's team were second-best in a match featuring few clear-cut opportunities, as the hosts spurned arguably the two best chances to break the deadlock, in an unconvincing City performance.

Nevertheless, Norwich have now extended their own unbeaten streak in the league to six consecutive games, whilst recording a fourth clean sheet in five. And Farke was keen to focus on the positives post-match, saying: "We are sitting top of the league. The last two league games we found it hard to find the net, but they were difficult games."

Przemyslaw Placheta came in for the banned Emi Buendia in midweek but produced a largely ineffective effort and could be replaced by Onel Hernandez on Friday with Buendia serving the second of his two-game suspension. Elsewhere, Kenny McLean could be recalled to the midfield having made the bench on Tuesday following his recovery from Covid-19.

Close contest forecast

Swansea have often been second-best in recent skirmishes with Norwich. The Swans have earned top honours just twice in the duos most recent 11 league meetings (W2-D2-L7) and come into this contest on the back of four defeats in five against the Canaries. That includes a 1-0 defeat at Carrow Road back in November during the reverse encounter.

Swansea 3.052/1 are amongst the leading pack having been beaten only four times in their opening 26 outings (W14-D8-L4). Steve Cooper's troops' have proven to be rock-solid competitors, giving few opportunities away, and shipping multiple goals in only three fixtures. However, the hosts have returned just W1-D4-L1 against fellow top-six sides.

Norwich 2.6613/8 have also suffered a league-low four losses in 2020/21 (W16-D7-L4) with the Canaries proving particularly impressive since October's international break. Daniel Farke's outfit have W15-D6-L2 over their last 23 tussles to move into pole position with the visitors also posting an eye-catching W5-D1-L1 on their most recent seven tips to the top-10.

Goals at a premium

Only three Championship clubs are seeing fewer goals per-game than Swansea's total of 1.85 this season as a huge 21/26 (81%) of games have produced Under 2.5 Goals 1.794/5. At the Liberty Stadium, 10 of the 13 Swans' fixtures have featured fewer than three goals as Steve Cooper's men have kept eight shutouts, conceding just six goals in total.

League leaders Norwich have now fired blanks in their last three outings across all competitions. In fact, only two of the Canaries' most recent 10 tussles have featured goals at both ends, and with plenty at stake in Friday night's highly-anticipated match-up, opposing goals could again prove to be the smart Championship play.

Seven of Norwich's past eight league contests produced a maximum of two goals, as have six of the visitors' seven against top-seven opposition. Under 2.5 Goals also paid out in five of Swansea's six encounters with teams operating in the play-off places, making a repeat here an appealing play at 1.794/5 quotes.