- Swansea were on a four-match winning run before Saturday’s loss to league leaders Leicester
- Watford have taken just two points from five Championship away games this term
- Recommended bet: Swansea to win

While not among the pre-season favourites for promotion, Swansea and Watford supporters would have had loftier ambitions than getting away from the relegation scrap in the Championship.

Both clubs have recently graced the Premier League and expect to at least be in the hunt for a return to the top tier, so anything less than a serious play-off push makes for a seriously disappointing campaign.

But, after underwhelming tenth and 11th-placed finishes respectively for Swansea and Watford in 2022-23, neither team has quite made the start to 20223-24 that they were hoping for under new managers.

The Swans do at least have a bit of momentum building, but pressure is mounting on Watford manager Valerien Ismael as one of the second tier’s highest-spending clubs finds itself closer to relegation than promotion.

Team news

Swansea have a number of long-term injury absentees unavailable, with midfielder Joe Allen and Azeem Abdulai not expected back until mid-November.

Winger Josh Ginnelly is out for another couple of weeks and centre-back Nathan Wood is still recovering from an ankle problem.

Ben Cabango has a change of returning from a hamstring injury, but Nathanael Ogbeta remains away from the Swans first team.

Watford centre-back Ryan Porteous serves a one-match suspension, but there are no injuries reported within Ismael’s squad.

The stats

Watford have taken just two points from five away games – only bottom two Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday have worse road records in the Championship.

The Hornets’ reasonable defensive record is slightly misleading as three of their four clean sheets have come against teams in the bottom four and they have got increasingly porous as the season has progressed.

After conceding just 0.5 goals per game in their first four matches, they have gone on to concede 1.75 per game in the following eight.

Swansea have failed to score in only one of 12 league games, netting 12 goals in their five most recent outings.

While the Swans have often struggled against better teams, they are unbeaten in five meetings with bottom-half opponents this term, winning three and scoring 11 goals while conceding only three times.

Prediction

Swansea had their four-match winning run ended last weekend, but a 3-1 defeat to in-form league leaders Leicester City is no disgrace and Michael Duff’s men had their chances in that game, taking the lead and hitting the bar with the score at 2-1.

It was a strong performance that, as Duff said, would have been enough to beat most teams in the division on the majority of occasions.

After Watford beat Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, Ismael spoke of the confidence his team would gain from that late victory. 

However, his players will not be fooling themselves that a scarcely deserved 1-0 home win against the team sitting bottom of the league is anything to get too excited about. 

The Swans have been playing with flair and confidence in attack and their cutting edge should see them over the line against the misfiring Hornets. 

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