Can Swansea keep their hopes of staying up alive when they host Liverpool at 8pm on Sky Sports?

The Swans have shown the slightest signs of a turnaround since Carlos Carvalhal took over at the end of December. They quickly picked up a 2-1 away win over Watford, and while Swansea then lost 2-0 to Tottenham, they went on to secure a potentially important point against fellow relegation-scrappers Newcastle. In amidst all this came an – eventual – FA Cup 3rd round victory against Wolves, with a 0-0 draw at Molineux followed up by 2-1 replay win at home last Wednesday, setting up an eminently winnable 4th round tie at Notts County this Saturday.



Still, none of this has been able to lift Swansea from the bottom of the table. And yes, while a shock win on Monday night wouldn’t shift them from 20th – they’d need to a 10 goal margin to leapfrog 19th place West Brom – it would leave them just 3 points from Stoke in 17th, a potentially shaft of light after months of gloom.

Of course we shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves. The last time Swansea met Liverpool wasn’t too long ago – Boxing Day in fact – and saw a managerless Swans suffer a 5-0 spanking at Anfield. And it’s not like Liverpool have slipped up since then, either – they’re currently the Premier League’s in-form team, nabbing the crown off of Man City by inflicting a first domestic defeat of the season on Pep Guardiola’s lads last Sunday.

That their 4-3 triumph over Man City came AFTER the departure of Philippe Countinho must have been reassuring for Jurgen Klopp, with his frontline putting in a performance that suggests they won’t miss the Brazilian trickster. On that topic, Sadio Mane heads to Wales with a Super Mega PGM of 32-38, while Roberto Firmino is at 39-46 and Mohamed Salah, who has 24 goals in all competitions, is at 51-59.

A decent – i.e. 3 goals or more – win on Monday would see Klopp’s side overtake Chelsea in 3rd, a gradual climb up the table that also sees them knocking on the door of Man United in 2nd (City are still way, way off). The German manager will be happy, then, to see Spreadex offer a Liverpool/Swansea (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 1.6-1.8 alongside a Total Goals spread of 3-3.2.