Following contrasting results on their return to action following the international break at the weekend, Swansea City and Watford will do battle in South Wales on Tuesday.
The visitors climbed to 19th spot in the Championship table with a home victory on Saturday, with their hosts now just two points better off in 17th place after their recent defeat.
Match preview
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Following their 10th-placed finish in the Championship last time around, Swansea City headed into the new season under the new management of Michael Duff with their sights set on a playoff battle once again, and it has certainly been a mixed start, with 15 points on the board from their opening 12 matches.
The Swans had to wait until their eighth league outing for a first win under Duff, as they sat in the relegation zone with three draws and four defeats on the board in mid-September, before putting a three-point haul on the board in style by thrashing fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 on home turf thanks to goals from Jamal Lowe, Jerry Yates and Charlie Patino.
That proved to be the start of an upturn in form for the Welsh side, as they went on to prevail by the same scoreline in a trip to Millwall before beating Norwich City and Plymouth Argyle 2-1 and 3-1 respectively, with Yates on the scoresheet alongside Oli Cooper and Josh Key in the latter to see his side go into the second international break with a much-improved tally of 15 points from 11 games.
Aiming to pick up where they left off on their return to action, Duff's side most recently played host to league leaders Leicester City on Saturday, but they were on the wrong end of a 3-1 away triumph on that occasion, despite going ahead through Matt Grimes, as Jannik Vestergaard drew the visitors level on the stroke of half time before Abdul Fatawu and Kelechi Iheanacho ensured they left with all three points.
With that result seeing Swansea drop back down to 17th spot, they will hope to quickly regain form with a home victory on Tuesday to kickstart another positive run of results and a sustained climb up the division.
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They meet another side who are hoping to quickly scale the table after a somewhat unexpectedly slow start, with Watford currently sat 19th following Valerien Ismael's summer appointment.
The Hornets set out to challenge for promotion back to the Premier League this season, but they would only manage 10 points from their opening 11 games before the October international break while only putting two victories on the board.
The more recent of those came at home to Birmingham City in mid-September, and Ismael's men then picked up just two more points from a five-match span, following up three straight defeats to Leeds United, Middlesbrough and Sunderland with a 1-1 draw away at Cardiff City before the break thanks to a Vakoun Issouf Bayo equaliser.
Returning to action on Saturday, the Hornets welcomed winless basement side Sheffield Wednesday to Vicarage Road in their bid to reverse their fortunes, and they were able to take all three points despite waiting over 80 minutes for an opener, as Yaser Asprilla came off the bench to net the decisive goal.
Now facing a quick turnaround and a trip to South Wales on Tuesday, Watford will look to build on the weekend's crucial victory and put a run of results together in England's second tier to move towards the right end of the division.
Team News
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Michael Duff should steer clear of making wholesale changes to his Swansea City starting XI on Tuesday following their Leicester contest, as the Welsh outfit continue to contend with several injury issues as defenders Ben Cabango and Nathan Wood remain confined to the treatment room alongside veteran midfielder Joe Allen and attacker Josh Ginnelly.
With Wood and Cabango ruled out, Chelsea loanee Bashir Humphreys should again join Harry Darling at the heart of the back four, while Josh Key and Josh Tymon will again complete the defensive line in full-back roles.
Charlie Patino will hope to again get the nod over Jay Fulton to join captain and mainstay Matt Grimes in midfield, while Jerry Yates, who has netted four league goals so far this term, will continue to lead the line, likely with support from the dangerous trio of Jamal Lowe, Jamie Paterson and Liam Cullen.
While Watford are not dealing with any ongoing injury issues, they do head into Tuesday's game without centre-back Ryan Porteous, who will serve a one-match suspension after reaching five yellow cards for the season, meaning Francisco Sierralta will come in to join Wesley Hoedt at the heart of the back four.
Ismael has decisions to make in attack, with Yaser Asprilla vying to come in from the start after netting the winner off the bench on Saturday, while Mileta Rajovic and Ken Sema also staked claims for starting spots in substitute appearances after Tom Ince, Vakoun Issouf Bayo and Matheus Martins were preferred from the outset.
Imran Louza came into the midfield alongside Jake Livermore and Tom Dele-Bashiru against Sheffield Wednesday, and he should certainly keep his place with Ismael Kone also fighting to come in and Edo Kayembe hoping to regain his spot.
Swansea City possible starting lineup:
Rushworth; Key, Humphreys, Darling, Tymon; Grimes, Patino; Cullen, Paterson, Lowe; Yates
Watford possible starting lineup:
Bachmann; Ngakia, Hoedt, Sierralta, Lewis; Louza, Livermore, Kone; Asprilla, Bayo, Martins
We say: Swansea City 1-1 Watford
The two sides were certainly in different veins of form prior to the international break, but both fortunes swung at the weekend making Tuesday's tie an intriguing one.
Watford have more quality than their league position suggests, and we fancy them to avoid defeat in South Wales and see a low-scoring draw as the most likely outcome.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Sam Varley
