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New boys Crystal Palace celebrated promotion in the summer via playoffs, but they failed to strengthen the squad in order to be able to compete at Premier League level. Palace managed to defeat out-of-sorts Sunderland 3-1 at home but lost the other three games and were also beaten in the League Cup by Bristol. The hosts are by far the worst team in the Premiership on paper and it would take a true miracle for them to survive the drop with this lack of talent in the squad. When your number 9 is 40 year old Kevin Phillips you can’t really hope for much in the strongest football league in the world.
Swansea is continuing to improve and, after winning the League Cup last year, they are expecting another great season. Laudrup managed to continue the work of Brendan Rodgers and the welsh team is coming after an emphatic 3-0 win away at Valencia in the Europa league. At the moment Swansea is only 16th in the standings but they had a very tough draw, meeting Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham in the first 4 rounds. They splashed the cash on Wilfried Bony in the summer and it proved to be a wise choice, as the ex-Vitesse man is scoring at will in all competition and alongside Michu creates one of the best offensive partnerships in the Premier League. Swansea is a hard working, organized team with a few difference makers and that is usually the best mix to avoid upsets against lesser opposition.
Team news & lineups
Palace misses influential midfielder Dikgacoi. Swansea does not have big squad problems but the question is if they can recover after playing that historic game at Mestalla just three days ago. My guess is there won`t be problems, Swansea has good depth in the squad and Laudrup even rested some players in that game, players that will start today (Shevley, Britton, Davies).
Crystal Palace: Speroni – Mariappa, Gabbidon, Moxey, Delaney – Campana, Guedioura, Jedinak, Puncheon, Gayle – Chamakh
Swansea City: Vorm – Amat, Chico, Davies, Rangel – Dyer, Britton, Shelvey, Routledge, Michu – Bony
Swansea needs points to climb up the table and this is a perfect opportunity to obtain them. Their 16th place is only circumstantial, we should be happy they sit that low in the standings because we can get slightly better odds. Palace is out of ideas up front and it will be tough to score against Swansea, while the visitors will have their chances with the excellent Michu-Bony front line. It will be a struggle but the welsh team should come out on top due to way better quality and form. I see something like 0-2, 1-2 here.
Pick: Swansea (-0,25 Asian Handicap)
Odds: 1.98 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 7.84
Event date: 22 September
Editor Facts
- Rostick is 2 for 3 in tips involving Swansea this season
