Can Swansea climb out of the relegation zone with an unlikely result against Tottenham, at 7.45pm on Sky Sports?

It may have taken them longer than some of their troubled peers, but the Swans are finally on their 2nd manager of the season. After ditching Paul Clements on 20th December they selected Carlos Carvalhal – who had just left Sheffield Wednesday by mutual consent, with the Owls trapped in the bottom half of the Championship – as the man to lead them out of the darkness just over a week later.



The cluttered festive fixtures list made no room for Swansea to rest up during that manger-less 8 days, with the side drawing 1-1 against Crystal Palace on Christmas Eve eve before suffering a 5-0 hammering at the hands of Liverpool on Boxing Day. Things did pick up once Carvalhal actually took over, however, with a very late – as in, 2 goals in the final 4 minutes late – win at Watford.

While that still leaves Swansea at in 20th place on 16 points, there’s so much going on this evening that the bottom half of the table could undergo a few notable changes. At the same time as Swansea’s visit from Spurs, 18th place West Ham host 19th place West Brom, with the former on 18 points from 20 games, the latter on 16 from 21. Then there’s 17th place Crystal Palace’s trip to Southampton, a game Roy Hodgson’s lot will be up for after ending Man City’s winning streak at the weekend. If Swansea can get something from Tuesday’s game, then how these other fixtures finish may well dictate whether or not the Welsh side can clamber out of the relegation zone.

Yet even getting a sniff of Spurs may be difficult for the Swans. The embarrassment of the month’s 4-1 defeat to Man City aside, Tottenham had a pretty impressive December. There were 5-1 and 5-2 victories over Stoke and Southampton, a 2-0 win against Brighton and a 3-0 brushing aside of Burnley. Admittedly this run couldn’t substantially improve their position in the league, with Spurs currently stuck in 6th place a whopping 22 points off 1st place City.

At least Harry Kane is having the time of his life, scoring 8 goals in the final 5 games of the year. That flurry meant he became 2017’s top scorer in all competitions in Europe with 56 goals, the first player in Premier League history to score 6 hat-tricks in a year AND saw him break Alan Shearer’s long-standing record for most goals in a Premier League calendar year with 39 goals. It should come as no surprise, then, that the England forward heads to Wales with a mega Super Mega PGM of 72-84.

Despite a thin shaft of light coming through the previously locked relegation zone exit since the appointment of Carvalhal’s appointment, Tuesday’s hosts are facing some pretty nasty odds, with Spreadex offering a Tottenham/Swansea (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 1.35-1.55 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.75-2.95.