Swansea v Sheffield Wednesday: Owls to fall short in South Wales

Swansea v Sheffield Wednesday
Wednesday November 25, 19:45
Sky Sports

Swansea seal narrow success

Steve Cooper believes Swansea have grown from their debut campaign under his stewardship after grinding out a 1-0 win over Rotherham on Saturday. Matt Grimes' first half strike earned the hosts all three points at the Liberty Stadium, although it should have been a far more comfortable victory for the Swans who had to withstand late pressure.

Jamal Lowe and Jake Bidwell were both denied by last-ditch blocks as they looked to add gloss to the scoreline. Nevertheless, the success - Swansea's third in a row on home soil - lifted the Welsh side up to fourth in the Championship table and Cooper believes it was the type of game Swansea could well have dropped points in last season.

Cooper said: "We created some really good chances that we could and should have done better with. We scored a scruffy goal to be fair and to show the other side of the game in the second-half, showing resilience and character and dealing with the set pieces and having the kitchen sink thrown at us, I'm really happy with that."

Academy product Liam Cullen made his first league start on Saturday and could keep his place should Andre Ayew and Marc Guehi remain unavailable.

Wednesday start with a loss under Pulis

Tony Pulis' tenure as Sheffield Wednesday boss started with a defeat at Preston, as he saw his new team have to play for more than 70 minutes with 10 men. The Owls had Josh Windass sent off after 17 minutes for a high challenge meaning an early reshuffle in style and system. The only goal of the game arrived only three minutes after half-time.

Wednesday pushed for an equaliser but struggled to create any clear chances and failed to land a single attempt on-target at Deepdale, enjoying just 26% of possession throughout the contest. Speaking post-match, Pulis bemoaned his lack of options with Kadeem Harris suspended, plus Jack Marriott and Dominic Iorfa injured, with Mass Luongo now doubtful.

Pulis said: "We started 4-3-3. We've worked hard on that, but after 15 minutes it all went out of the window, which is a shame really. It's tough right now to pick a team that is really as good as we can get. There were good signs at times but when you go down to 10 men it's really difficult. The lads worked all week on certain things and it just goes out the window."

Swans in fine form since lockdown

Swansea have suffered a solitary defeat in eight league meetings with Sheffield Wednesday over the past decade or so (W3-D4-L1), avoiding defeat in all five fixtures in Wales against the Owls across all competitions since 1983. The hosts have overcome Wednesday by the same 2-1 scoreline in each of their past two Championship encounters at the Liberty.

Swansea 2.021/1 have enjoyed a superb run since the enforced COVID-break in March (W11-D6-L4), earning more points over the 21-game sample than any other second-tier rival. The hosts sit top of the tree in terms of Expected Goals (xG) and xG open play ratio, and have already recorded six shutouts, giving away the second-fewest open play opportunities.

Sheffield Wednesday 4.2016/5 haven't managed to avoid defeat for longer than a two-game spell throughout 2020 and come into this clash having scored just once in nine hours of league football. The Owls have W1-D1-L5 in their most recent seven outings and been beaten in four of six games as guests across the Championship campaign in 2020/21.

Hosts can keep Owls at bay

Swansea and Sheffield Wednesday are amongst the bottom-five in terms of total goals per-game through 12 rounds of Championship action. Collectively, the pair have seen just 1.59 goals per-game this season with 20/24 (83%) of matches featuring under 2.5 Goals 1.654/6, with none of those 24 tussles seeing more than three strikes.

The duo have combined to keep 11 clean sheets and with Wednesday missing a plethora of attacking options, I'm happy to oppose the visitors in a low-scoring showdown knowing how Tony Pulis prefers to operate in this sort of situation. With that in mind, taking Swansea Double Chance and Under 2.5 Goals at 1.95 on the Same Game Multi holds appeal.