Swansea are the relegation-battling hosts as Chelsea travel to South Wales in their chase for the Champions League places. The Swans sit one place above the drop zone and could be plunged deep into a relegation scrap if Southampton and Stoke pick up points before kick-off on Saturday evening.
Team News
David Luiz is still absent through injury but hopes to feature again before the end of the season.
Marcos Alonso is still unavailable through suspension.
The hosts will be will be without Tammy Abraham who is ineligible against his parent club.
Wilfried Bony and Leroy Fed are injured while Kyle Bartley, Federico Fernandez and Renato Sanches are all doubts.
Probable Swansea XI (4-5-1): Fabianski; Naughton, Van der Hoorn, Mawson, Olsson; A. Ayew, King, Ki, Carroll, Clucas; J. Ayew.
Probable Chelsea XI (3-4-3): Courtois; Azpilicueta, Cahill, Rudiger; Moses, Fabregas, Kante, Emerson; Willian, Giroud, Hazard.
Key Men:
With Swansea likely to be sitting deep and taking in a lot of pressure, Lukas Fabianski has the huge task of keeping the likes of Giroud, Hazard and Morata at bay.
Cesc Fabregas will be tasked with dictating the tempo of the game and finding his teammates in attacking positions. He’ll have to be precise with his passing in order to break down a compact Swansea defence.
Swansea’s main goal scoring threat comes from the Ayew brothers, Jordan and Andre. If the hosts are to have any chance of winning this game then those two will have to be involved higher up the pitch.
Key stats:
Chelsea have lost just 1 of their 13 Premier League games against Swansea. That defeat came in 2016 when Gylfi Sigurdsson’s strike was enough to beat Guus Hiddink’s side.
Swansea are winless in their last 5 Premier League games, scoring just twice.
The Swans have defeated the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal at the Liberty Stadium this season.
Victor Moses is the only Chelsea player to have scored at the Liberty Stadium, notching there for the Blues back in 2012 during his first season with the club. (Olivier Giroud has scored there for Arsenal).
