Stoke City v Swansea City Betting Tips

The climax of the Premier League weekend is a match between two teams under the umbrella of relegation-threatened clubs as Stoke City host Swansea City.

Just like last season, Stoke suffered an awful start to the campaign but have now recovered with no defeats in their last four matches and have recorded two consecutive victories going into this match against Swansea. Overall this puts a bit of breathing space between them and the relegation zone.

After conceding 16 goals in their first five games, it seems Stoke have suddenly remembered how to defend having let in just two goals in those last four matches unbeaten with two clean sheets.

The Potters have always been known as a very good defensive unit ever since their promotion to the top flight in 2008. It is this excellent record that has seen them establish themselves in the league without any real threat of relegation.

Although keeping clean sheets against two of the lowest scorers in the Premier League may not be the greatest achievement, it will no doubt give them confidence going into this match on Monday against Swansea who have struggled to score themselves this season.

If Stoke keep a clean sheet, you generally expect them to win games with the talent they have in the front-line with the likes of Marko Arnautovic and Xherdan Shaqiri.

Another player playing towards the top of the field for Stoke is Joe Allen. The Wales international has moved from a deep-lying midfield role into the number ten in recent weeks and it has really paid off with Allen netting four times in four games. The 26-year-old scored twice in his most recent home match for the Potters and he will relish a clash against former employers Swansea. If we put all these factors into the mixture then we can say he has a good chance of scoring on Monday. Odds of 3/1 are pretty hard to resist when it comes to a player in such good form.

Although Swansea lost their first game under new American manager Bob Bradley, they actually played pretty well and usually scoring two goals should be enough to win a match. However, it was against Arsenal and so losses can happen and Swans fans will have been encouraged by the fact their team ran the Gunners close.

Confidence grew again as the Swans secured a draw against Watford at the Liberty Stadium last weekend. Whilst they perhaps will feel they should have won this home match, their first clean sheet since the opening day of the season will have pleased Bradley.

As with so many of the bottom sides, goals are a problem for the Swans and you feel that if they concede then they have very little chance of winning. Going away to an in-form side, especially in defence, will be a difficult challenge for the Swans.

I think it is a bit unfair to bring Swansea’s away form so far this season into the equation as they have visited some of the top sides in the division under an old manager. Obviously it is now a clean slate under Bradley, but I still think they will struggle away at Stoke. Their attack just doesn’t look up to the task  and the draw is the best they can hope for.

All things considered, I cannot avoid ‘Stoke City to Win to Nil’ at 27/10. As previously mentioned, Swansea could really struggle when it comes to penetrating the Potters’ back-line and Stoke have enough talent at the top end to score against Swansea – especially at home.

A final bet to go for here is ‘Stoke City to Score Over 1.5 Goals’ at 11/10. Going by Stoke’s two most recent results, in which they have faced similar opposition to Swansea, they netted more than a single goal with ease, whilst the Potters have also scored at least two goals in four of their last five matches at home to the Swans and this stat is likely to be five out of six after Monday’s match.

See more tips here.