Lambert’s good record against Swansea hopefully extends this weekend
With the International break coming to an end (as a Welshman I’m especially happy), we head back to the nitty gritty of the Premier League, and welcome Swansea to Villa Park this weekend.
Unlike many of you fine people who may live in and around the Midlands, I’ve lived in Cardiff for most of my life. Here Swansea are the main rivals, so it be especially nice if we get a win on Saturday, and extract some payback after they embarrassed us on our own patch last season.
Thankfully for us we have Swansea slayer Paul Lambert managing us these days, and with a bit more positivity surrounding the club following the good point at Newcastle and new signings, I hope there isn’t a let-down come Saturday. As alluded to, Lambert has a great record against the Swans, with his Norwich side beating them twice last campaign, and Lambert winning 4 of the 5 matches he has managed against them. Granted we have an abysmal record at Villa Park as of late, but things just seem set up for a win. Well hopefully anyway.
It was their (Norwich’s) 3-2 win over Swansea last season that was one of the first times I took notice of what Lambert was doing at the club. I remember all the talk being afterwards of how Lambert had completely dumbfounded Rodgers and Swansea from a tactical point of view, and in doing so, they became (at the time) only the second side to win at the Liberty Stadium in the Premiership. We’ve highlighted stats recently showing how we’re looking to play a different style of football, and it will be a tough test against a Swansea side who have started the season in such fine form.
They’re experiencing a bit of a defensive crisis by all accounts, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gabby used up top to try and terrify some of the new boys with a bit of pace. Perhaps Benteke will come off the bench and you can imagine not many defenders would fancy that either. I watched probably there best defender Ashley Williams have a bit of a torrid time against Serbia yesterday (he wasn’t helped at all to be fair), and it can’t have been ideal preparation for the player. Still Laudrup has got them playing well, and they look to have signed a few more gems.
Hopefully Lambert continues his good record though, and we continue our improvement as a team.
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They are obviously without Taylor and Chicho at the back. So hopefully whatever happens we will give it a good go like we did at Newcastle. If we do then there are goals in it for us. Lets just hope we can keep Michu quite.
I really think we will perform well on Saturday. I know the new lads will take time to settle in but even if we start with the same team that played at Newcastle, I fancy our chances.
It doesn’t need a wise man to understand the importance of us beginning to post three points on the board with regularity, come the games at Brummagem B6.
Until we do so we will struggle to keep our heads above water, and continue to play out our football in the lower reaches of the premier league.
The much improved performance up on Tyneside will hopefully have boosted tremendously the confidence within the squad, and whereas Swansea City turned up at Villa Park last January and gave us something approaching a footballing lesson, I have a strong belief that that will most certainly not be the case this coming weekend.