Swansea City will look to bounce back from their disappointing defeat against Newcastle United at the Liberty Stadium last weekend when they face Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley on Sunday.
Jamaal Lascelles’ second-half header condemned the Welsh outfit to successive home losses in the Premier League, after they were beaten 4-0 by Manchester United last month.
It certainly won’t be an easy task to pick up a positive result against Spurs, who have challenged for the Premier League title in the last two seasons and also beat Everton 3-0 at Goodison Park last time out.
That said, Paul Clement’s men have qualities of their own and they have picked up their fair share of impressive results ever since they were promoted to the top flight in 2011.
Even though they lost key men Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente during the summer, the club has brought in replacements like Renato Sanches, Tammy Abraham and Wilfried Bony and the big-name departures don’t seem to have fazed the squad.
Here are three reasons Swansea will beat Tottenham on Sunday…
Defensive organisation on the road
While Swansea have perhaps been a little disappointing at the Liberty Stadium this season, they have certainly made a marked improvement away from home.
It is probably something that Paul Clement concentrated on throughout the summer after the club lost 13 of their 19 matches on the road last term, and he would have wanted to improve their defensive organisation.
Having picked up a goalless draw against Southampton on the opening day and then beaten Crystal Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park, the Swans seem to be a tougher team to break down and beat on their travels.
If they can take that to Wembley on Sunday it will only boost their chances of returning to Wales with all three points.
Tottenham’s Wembley record
While Tottenham have won both of their Premier League matches away from home this season without conceding a goal, and beat Borussia Dortmund 3-1 in the Champions League on Wednesday night, their overall Wembley record will give Swansea hope of picking up a win on Sunday.
Spurs have won just three of their 13 matches at the famous stadium since it was rebuilt and they have taken just one point from home fixtures against Chelsea and Burnley so far this term.
While the win against Dortmund will undoubtedly give them a boost, their poor record at Wembley will still be back of the players’ minds and Paul Clement’s men will be looking to take advantage of that mental vulnerability on Sunday.
With the likes of Wilfried Bony, Tammy Abraham, Jordan Ayew and Renato Sanches in their ranks, they also have the players to hurt the hosts on the break.
Tiredness
While Swansea will have had a week’s rest by the time the fixture between the two clubs kicks off on Sunday, it will be a different story for the Tottenham players.
They needed to be at the top of their game for the full 90 minutes against Dortmund to pick up the positive result that they did, and it may well have taken its toll on the team.
With five games in 14 days to come Mauricio Pochettino may decide to make changes to the starting XI from the win against Borussia Dortmund, but he is more likely to wait to do that until the League Cup clash against Barnsley on Wednesday night.
If he does stick with the same side or a similar one for the visit of the Swans, Paul Clement will be looking for his players to stretch the play and use their pace and extra energy to punish Spurs on the day.