English Premier League Round 30 will round up on Sunday with a couple of interesting matchups. Swansea City and Middlesbrough is one of the two games scheduled for the afternoon and it’s a pretty interesting one, considering the position of both teams on the league table. Both Swans and Boro’ will be battling for the survival in the English top league and every game will be important, especially head to head encounters.
SWANSEA CITY FC vs. MIDDLESBROUGH FC
3-Way: 1: Swansea City FC +100; X: +276 Draw; Middlesbrough FC +355
Spread -0.5: Swansea +100; Middlesborough FC -101
Total +2.5: Over +125; Under -132
The Swansea City FC is currently outside the relegation zone, ranking 17th in the league table with three points advantage over the 18th ranked Hull City. They also have five points advantage over their next opponent. Head coach Paul Clement said that his team looks very fit and hungry for good performances especially on the home turf and that they will try to use the momentum they have playing at the Liberty that produced three straight home victories over Southampton, Leicester City and Burnley. Last time the Swans got outplayed at home was against Arsenal on January 14th, 0-4. Good news for boss Clement is the fact that Martin Olsson and Kyle Naughton are both set to be play on Sunday after dealing with some injury setbacks. Swansea City is 4-0-4 in the last eight games and 3-0-1 in the last four games at home. Six of those eight games were over 2.5 goals while other two games were over 1.5 goals. 93% of Swans home matches were over 1.5 goals (only one of 14 games was under 1.5 goals) and most common result at home is 1-3 (occurred two times). They are 5-2-7 at home and they rank 17th in the home table with 17 of 42 possible points earned. Fernando Llorente tops the team in scoring this season with 11 goals while Gylfi Sigurdsson has eight and Leroy Fer has six on their accounts. Sigurdsson also leads the team and the league currently with 11 assists. Madou Barrow and Tom Carroll collected two assists each. Jack Cork leads the team in passing with 1.163 total passes while Kyle Naughton ranks second with 1.006.
Angel Rangel (Metatarsal Fracture) is expected to be out until at least June 1, while Nathan Dyer (Achilles Injury) is also unavailable with unspecified date of return. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Knock), Martin Olsson (Ankle Injury) and Kyle Naughton (Hamstring Injury) are all available to coach Clement for Sunday game.
Middlesbrough FC fired their manager Aitor Karanka on March 16th, after three and a half years of tenure. The decision was made by the club officials after team’s catastrophically bad streak that started in the middle of December. Last time Middlesbrough won the game was on December 17th, against their next opponent, Swansea City. Since then, they are without a victory, recording seven losses and four draw. The Club appointed Steve Agnew as the caretaker and he started his tenure with a home loss against Manchester United in the last round at the Riverside, 1-3. Middlesbrough FC currently ranks 19th in the league table with 22 points. On the road, they are 1-6-7 with a 8-16 goal difference. They failed to win in their last 13 away matches and they failed to score in their last four away matches. Only 29% of their away matches are over 2.5 goals and only 14% of their away matches are over 3.5 goals. Nevertheless, thanks to many draws on the road, they rank 15th in the away table with 9 of 42 possible points earned. With ten games left, battle for survival will be tough for Boro’, but as coach Agnew said, they’ll have to believe and stay up. “We have to play as a team and work for each other and the results will come. It’s all about to reaching above that line come the end of the season” were the words of midfielder Marten de Roon. Alvaro Negredo tops the team in goals scored this year with six while Cristhian Stuani has four and Marten de Roon has two. Negredo also tops the team in assists with four while Gaston Ramirez collected three and Stuart Downing got two. Ben Gibson leads the team in passing with 1.318 total passes while Adam Forshaw ranks second with 1.145.
Calum Chambers (Foot) and George Friend (Calf Strain) are expected to be out until at least April 17, while Daniel Ayala (Hamstring injury) is expected to be out until Sunday and but it is unknown if he will be available to coach Agnew.
This is a very important game for both teams as they both fight for the survival in the Premier League. I give the advantage to the home team but I would not count out the visitors just yet, considering that Middlesbrough made some changes and at this point they don’t have much to lose. This could be a good possibility for the Over 2.5 goals.
MY PICK: Over 2.5 goals (+125)
