It is widely lauded by all and sundry as being the greatest league in the world. But while at the top end of the table Chelsea Football Club looks to be cantering towards a sixth title, it is at the foot of the Premier League table where all the real drama and excitement seems to be currently being generated.
And at 1600 hours GMT on Sunday afternoon, the drama doesn’t get much more tense as reigning Premier League champions Leicester City travel to South Wales to face fellow relegation-threatened Swansea City in a hugely significant match for both teams. It promises to be a real nail-biter for both sets of supporters with the clubs equal on 21 points and sitting uncomfortably just a single point clear of the dreaded drop zone.
Swans searching for home comforts
New Swansea boss Paul Clement, who has spent much of his coaching career to date looking down on the rest of the league table as Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant at Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, has taken to management at the wrong end of the table like a duck to water.
Three wins from four league matches in January including a thrilling first ever away victory over Liverpool at Anfield has breathed new life into a Swansea team who had looked doomed to relegation under Clement’s predecessors Francesco Guidolin and Bob Bradley. And the Swans were desperately unlucky not to emerge from last Sunday’s visit to Manchester City with a potentially precious point, Gabriel Jesus’ injury time winner cruelly denying them at the last.
Before Clement’s arrival, Swansea’s home form had made for uneasy reading with just eight points taken at the Liberty Stadium, a poor return given their record of just five home defeats the previous season. The in-form club is now 6/4 with Coral for the drop while Sunday’s opponents Leicester are slightly longer odds at 2/1 with William Hill to complete a rapid fall from grace and finish in the bottom three just 12 months after topping the pile so thrillingly.
Foxes in desperate need of first away win
The last time Leicester won a Premier League match away from home, against Sunderland last April, the club was motoring towards a first ever top division title win. Now just 10 months on, the deposed champions have yet to register a league win on their travels all season, after boasting a record of just two losses on the road in 2015-16.
To say it has been a disappointing defence of their trophy would be bordering on the understatement of the millennium. And despite Foxes boss Claudio Ranieri getting the dreaded vote of confidence earlier this week, he remains the favourite ahead of Middlesbrough’s Aitor Karanka to be the next top-flight manager to lose his job, registering as short as 6/4 with BetVictor.
On current form, Swansea should go into his match as overwhelming favourites for victory given their recent promising results and Leicester’s continuing awful form. Yet, Bet365 are still offering tasty odds of 6/4 for a home win while Leicester is 21/10 with BetVictor to finally register a first away win of the campaign.
And talking of decent odds, how about this for a potential money maker? With Leicester having lost four matches in succession on the road with no goals scored and 10 conceded, serious consideration should be given to having a small flutter on Swansea keeping a clean sheet on Sunday, with odds of 9/4 on offer from Bet365.
With some difficult matches lying in wait for both clubs, a defeat for either would significantly deepen relegation worries. It promises to be a close but nervy encounter.
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