Saturday 16th December 2016 Kickoff: 1500hrs
Middlesbrough v Swansea City
Football – England – Premier League
Whilst much of the attention is fixated at the top of the Premier League as Chelsea lead the way, there are plenty of teams who are looking over their shoulders as Christmas approaches. Two of those teams meet at the Riverside on Saturday as Middlesbrough and Swansea will do battle in an attempt to move themselves further away from the foot of the table. One position and three points separate the two clubs which give an indication of how important Saturday’s match is for both teams.
It was never going to be easy for ‘Boro after earning promotion last year considering how much the Premier League has changed since they were last in the top flight. Add to that it is the first time that Aitor Karanka has managed at this level then their main aim was simply to survive this season. So far it has been a struggle for the most part with the Teesiders managing only three wins from their opening 16 games. Two of this victories have come at home and it’s only to be expected that a club in their position will pick up most of their points in the Riverside. An obvious area of improvement for them between now and the rest of the season is to score more goals as a team. They are the lowest scorers in the division and have managed only six goals at home thus far. Much was expected of summer signing Alvaro Negredo but as yet, he’s failed to fire on a consistent basis managing only three goals.
Swansea picked up only their second win of the season since opening day last weekend with the 3-0 victory over Sunderland. Many hoped, including manager Bob Bradley, that it would be the basis for the team to go on a run and move themselves up the table. Unfortunately, that never materialized and the Swans were on the end of another heavy defeat this time at the Hawthorns against West Brom. It was their seventh straight away game without a win in the league, losing six of them. In that run of games they have conceded 18 goals which will be a major concern and something that needs to change if they are to survive. What is noticeable is that they can often keep things tight to begin with but when they lost the first goal the heads seem to go down and chasing games does not suit their style of play as it removes the protection for a weak defence.
Middlesbrough v Swansea City Betting Tips
Neither of these teams are in great form heading into this one so it’s likely that there will be a certain edge to the early proceedings. Even though the visitors trail their weekend opponents by three points, considering the run they are on away from home then a point would probably be seen as decent results. ‘Boro, on the other hand, will be targeting this as a must win being a home game against a team below them in the league.
Although wins have been hard to come by for Middesbrough at home, the two wins they have managed have been against teams who they would feel they had a realistic chance against in Bournemouth and Hull City. I think Swansea are certainly another of those teams and they can take advantage of what is obviously an opponent who are fragile and low on confidence.
Middlesbrough 23/20 @ Betfred
