by Matthew Thomas
Swansea City will start 2014 looking back on a historic year for the club. Winning their first major trophy in their centenary season and their highest league finish since the 1980s.
However, since their victory at Wembley their form has tailed off significantly. Despite progression into the knockout stages of the Europa League, the Swans have only won seven out of their next 30 league games since beating Bradford in the Capital One Cup final.
One criticism levelled at Swansea recently has been their lack of potency in front of goal. Most of the heat has been directed at record signing Wilfried Bony. The £12 million striker is yet to show the goal scoring prowess that supposedly merited the big money move. Four league goals is a poor return and the whole team is only averaging one goal a game.
Defensively Michael Laudrup’s side have also been struggling having only kept five clean sheets so far this season and conceded the first goal in eleven of their league games so far.
So the worst way to start the New Year than with a visit from in form Manchester City. The former Premier League champions went top of the table briefly before they were overtaken by Arsenal. And the free-flowing City side are in buoyant mood having won 6 consecutive matches in all competitions, including a 3-2 win at European Champions Bayern Munich and wins over Arsenal and Liverpool.
Striker Sergio Aguero remains unavailable due to injury while David Silva is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season.
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