Swansea vs Stoke City
Venue: Liberty Stadium
Kick off: 3pm
Two mid-table sides enjoying progressive seasons meet at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday (today) afternoon as Swansea City entertain Stoke City.
Swansea have reached the 50-point mark for the first time in the Premier League and Stoke are now aiming to surpass their best points tally of the same figure.
Garry Monk and his charges met their 50-point target courtesy of their 3-2 victory over Newcastle United last weekend.
Nelson Oliveira and Jack Cork each bagged their first Swansea goals either side of Gylfi Sigurdsson’s eighth of the season as they recorded a 14th league win of the campaign.
Victory over Stoke, who are one point and three places below them, would likely tie up a best ever Premier League finish of eighth, but Swansea would perhaps have more to gain from winning some of their other remaining fixtures.
The Potters pipped Swansea to the 50-point mark by 12 months, although they have been in the top flight for three seasons longer.
Mark Hughes set his standards high in his first campaign in charge at the Britannia Stadium, but Stoke are on course to go even better this term.
Four points from their final four games would see City eclipse last season’s points return and victory over Swansea would also see them leapfrog their opponents into eighth.
A 1-1 draw at home to relegation-threatened Sunderland last weekend may have felt like two dropped points, but the Potters recovered from conceding a first-minute goal to extend their unbeaten run to three games.
Charlie Adam has come to the party in recent weeks.
The Scottish midfielder has three goals in his last four games, having only bagged two in his 27 previous outings this season, one of which was against Swansea.
Osaze Odemwingie made his first appearance in eight months as a substitute in Stoke’s stalemate with Sunderland.
The Nigerian forward has overcome his cruciate knee ligament injury and could be on the bench again.
Swansea possible starting lineup: Fabianski; Rangel, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor; Cork, Shelvey; Montero, Sigurdsson, Dyer; Oliviera.
Stoke possible starting lineup: Begovic; Bardsley, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters; N’Zonzi, Whelan, Adam; Diouf, Arnautovic, Walters.