The Owls face the Swans on Saturday in a bottom of the table scrap, that both teams need to win. Sheffield Wednesday have only beat Swansea once in 12 matches since 2009, so the hosts will have the historical and home advantage.
Swansea
It is fair to say that the loss of Russell Martin and Joel Piroe has had an astronomical impact on the Swansea performances and new boss, Michael Duff, will be desperate to get a first win under his belt. The Swans currently sit in 22nd place and are yet to win a game in seven attempts. Swansea have scored in 85% of their games this season, which diverts most of the criticism towards the backline and their lack of defensive security as a unit. They have played three games at home and drew two of them, but the squad will see this weekend’s game as the perfect opportunity to gain some momentum.
Last time out, Swansea travelled to QPR where they drew 1-1 and were very nearly walking home with three points. Josh Ginnelly opened the scoring in the 7th minute and the Swans looked to be cruising to victory, until Lyndon Dykes equalised four minutes from time. To make matters worse, second half substitute, Oliver Cooper, then picked up two yellow cards in the 97th and 98th minute.
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday are in an almost identical position as their opponent this weekend, which just adds more pressure to come away with a solid performance and most importantly three points. The Owls are in 23rd place and are also yet to win a game this season after seven games. At the beginning of the campaign, Xisco’s side showed a clear lack of control in most games and the majority of them saw plenty of goals. However in recent weeks, his side have been a lot more structurally sound and they have become rather hard to break down. Despite this, scoring goals still remains a huge issue that the Owls must fix as soon as possible.
Although Wednesday only picked up one point in the 0-0 draw with Leeds the other week, that game may just serve as a catalyst for development, as just one week later, they only lost 1-0 to an Ipswich side that had been scoring for fun. Having said that, This week, they also drew 1-1 with last placed Middlesborough in a tie that was evenly contested.
Verdict?
Neither side are performing to a high enough level to warrant a win, hence the record and standings, but I feel that one of these sides may just edge it. Swansea haven’t been absolutely terrible at home and I think they may just steal the three points.
The final prediction is Swansea 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday.
