Sports Blog 29/12/2014: Match Preview – Liverpool vs Swansea, Monday 29th December

As Liverpool sit smack-bang in the middle of the league table, Brendan Rogers’ men will be hoping to find some consistent form against a Swansea team that are still over-performing.

The Reds’ Boxing Day win at Burnley was unconvincing, with only a strong performance from Raheem Sterling making the difference between the two sides. Swansea, meanwhile, held-off Aston Villa through the dual performances of summer singings Gylfi Siggurdsson and Lukasz Fabianski.

Yet with neither team wowing spectators, tonight’s game is all to play for, as 10th-placed Liverpool attempt to move level on points with Gary Monk’s Welsh side. Swansea, on the other hand, are chasing West Ham and Tottenham, as they try and keep up the push for a place in Europe.

Whilst the respective positions of each team are not to dissimilar, the feeling in each camp could not be more different. After finishing 12th last year, this season’s push for Europe is an unexpected, but welcome, delight for the Swans, whilst the drop from 2nd to 10th carries a pretty big sting in the tail for Anfield’s finest. With 3 draws, 2 wins and a loss in their last 6 games, Liverpool are continually struggling to find any consistency; things aren’t much different for Swans, with 3 wins, 2 losses and one draw. However, the level of expectation for each team will be having a heavy psychological cost for Liverpool, and it is showing in their fall from grace this season.



Yet with only 17 league goals being scored at Anfield this season, and a Swansea side that have only scored 8 away goals, Brendan Rogers will be quietly confident of a win this evening. Here at Spreadeax this confidence has been felt by our clients, with plenty of support for our Liverpool/Swansea Goal Supremacy spread betting quote of 0.75-0.95, despite Swansea’s ability to take points off of ‘bigger’ teams, shown with wins against Man United and Arsenal.

Both teams have also been missing a talismanic striker this season. After his winner against Burnley, Sterling has become Liverpool’s top scorer with only 6 goals, and is favourite to score first at 5/1; perpetually put-upon Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is at 8/1 with 5 goals. Swansea’s top scorer is Wilfried Bony with 8 goals, and he is at 11/2 fixed odds betting to score first; Nathan Dyer is at 12/1 with 4 goals, whilst star-signing Siggurdsson is 11/1 also with 4 goals.

Yet regardless of these stats, our Sports Traders still fancy a Total Goal spread betting quote of 2.75-2.95 as both sides look to consolidate their league positions, with Liverpool especially seeking to take an important 3 points off of the Swans.