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Swansea City vs Manchester City, Premier League: Team News, Preview, Predictions

The Blues face a tough trip to Wales looking to extend their historic winning streak

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Huddersfield Town v Manchester City - Premier League Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images

History has been made. Manchester City became the first team in English football history to win 14 consecutive top-flight matches in the same season, but the job is not finished. There are 22 matches to go in the Premier League, and while the 11-point gap over second-place Manchester United is potentially title-clinching, there’s still a lot of work to do to become champions.

Every game and every point matters, and the next challenge will be a perfect test for the Blues. They visit Swansea City on Wednesday night, a team that is second from bottom in the table and have won just one of their last eight league matches. On paper this is a routine win for Pep Guardiola and his men, but if they don’t take the game seriously the amazing accomplishment at the weekend means very little.

You can lose any game at any time in the Premier League, and losses sometimes come at the most unexpected moments. This would be THE most unexpected moment to lose a game if you’re Manchester City, so they have to prove against the Swans that the title means a lot more than a record. Every game matters.


MATCH INFO, TV & STREAMING

Date/Time: 7:45pm GMT (UK), 8:45pm WAT (Nigeria), 2:45pm ET, 11:45am PT (USA), 1:15am IST (India)

Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Wales

Television: Not Televised (UK), NBCSN (USA), Sportsnet One (Canada), SuperSport 7 (Nigeria)

Online streaming: NBC Sports Gold (USA), Sportsnet World Now (Canada), FuboTV (7-day free trial, click here to sign up)

(Listings via LiveSoccerTV)


TEAM NEWS

Vincent Kompany is set for another spell on the sidelines after suffering another muscle injury in the Manchester Derby, so Pep Guardiola is starting to run out of options in defense. Guardiola is already managing his players’ minutes very carefully, and he’ll need to pay extra attention to his rotation system as December continues to bring us A LOT of matches.

We should see a good bit of rotation against Swansea, but not too much. Fabian Delph and David Silva are probably getting a rest since they weren’t at 100% for the game at Old Trafford but still played anyway, and Fernandinho may be left out as he’s on four yellow cards and is just one booking away from missing Sunday’s gigantic game against Tottenham Hotspur.

There could be a change in formation as well, with Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Agüero starting together to add more firepower up front as the Swans are likely to park the bus as Huddersfield Town, Southampton and West Ham United did over the last few weeks.


POSSIBLE LINEUPS

Manchester City (4-4-2)

Ederson; Walker, Otamendi, Mangala, Danilo; Bernardo, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Sané; Jesus, Agüero

Swansea City (4-1-4-1)

Fabianski; Naughton, Fernández, Mawson, Olsson; Mesa; Ayew, Fer, Ki, Routledge; Bony


PREDICTION

Sunday’s Derby was really intense, and the rotation may hurt our fluidity in attack, but we’ll still get the win: 2-0 to the Blues.