Aston Villa vs Swansea
Venue: Villa Park
Kick off: 3pm
Aston Villa play host to Swansea City on Saturday (today) on the back of eight Premier League games without a win and with manager Tim Sherwood reportedly fighting to keep his job in the West Midlands.
Swansea also head into the fixture on the back of a number of disappointing results and Garry Monk’s men must avoid defeat to avoid falling closer to the relegation zone.
Ahead of last weekend’s match with Chelsea, reports suggested that Sherwood had two games to save his job at Villa Park, despite only taking charge of the club in February and leading Villa to the FA Cup final.
Little blame could be attributed to Sherwood for Villa’s 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea’s goals coming from a mistake by goalkeeper Brad Guzan and an unfortunate own goal from Alan Hutton, but the defeat made it seven in eight games for a club who had hoped to be challenging for a mid-table position.
Despite their recent run, Villa are just four points from safety, with the damage being limited due to a quartet of teams above them failing to pick up results on a consistent basis, but the fact that the club remain within a win of closing down their rivals may be part of the reasoning behind the Villa hierarchy allegedly considering the future of their current boss.
Hosting an out-of-form Swansea side will be seen as the perfect opportunity to get three much-needed points on the board, but since Sherwood’s arrival, Villa have won just three of their 11 Premier League fixtures in front of their own fans.
When Swansea stormed back to defeat Manchester United at the end of August, they saw their status in the Premier League rise from a mid-table club to a team who could potentially repeat the achievements of Southampton last season.
However, over the course of six games, Swansea have suffered an alarming loss of form that has not only left them four points above the relegation zone, but has also resulted in reports that boss Monk, a club stalwart and who had started to be linked with high-profile jobs elsewhere, could be removed from his position.
Home draws with Everton and Tottenham Hotspur are respectable results, but the club underperformed away at Watford and Southampton, before their winless run was extended on Monday night when they lost 1-0 at home to Stoke City.
Aston Villa possible starting lineup: Guzan; Hutton, Richards, Lescott, Amavi; Gueye, Westwood, Gil; Grealish, Sinclair, Gestede.
Swansea City possible starting lineup: Fabianski; Rangel, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor; Cork, Shelvey; Sigurdsson, Ayew, Montero; Gomis.