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Arsenal vs Swansea Preview: Classic Encounter, Key Battles, Team News & More

Arsene Wenger's side head to South Wales to battle Swansea Tuesday night, and will be hoping to avoid another giant-killing at the Liberty Stadium.Carlos

90 Min

Arsenal vs Swansea Preview: Classic Encounter, Key Battles, Team News & More
Arsenal vs Swansea Preview: Classic Encounter, Key Battles, Team News & More /

Arsene Wenger's side head to South Wales to battle Swansea Tuesday night, and will be hoping to avoid another giant-killing at the Liberty Stadium.

Carlos Carvahal's Swans sit bottom of the Premier League, only managing to convert 15 goals so far this season. The Welsh side, however, pulled off an incredible 1-0 win against Jurgen Klopp's 4th placed Liverpool team in their last home fixture.

Arsenal also have quite a lot to shout about at the moment, after a 4-1 thrashing of  Crystal Palace in their last league fixture and booking themselves a place in the Carabao Cup final mid-week with a convincing win over London rivals Chelsea. 

The Gunners currently sit in 6th place, but will be looking to build on this rich vein of form and continue their assault on the Premier League's coveted top four.

The fixture promises to be an exciting one, with the Swans seemingly rejuvenated since new boss Carlos Carvahal took over the reigns at the Liberty Stadium.

Arsenal, however, will go into the tie favourites off the back of two big wins and have the prospect of new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan making his debut to look forward to.

Classic Encounter (Sunday 15th January 2012: Swansea 3-2 Arsenal)

Swansea City's Leon Britton (L) chases a

When Swansea welcomed Arsenal to the Liberty Stadium for the first time in 2011, even the much-anticipated return of Arsenal legend Theirry Henry wasn't enough to stop a legendary Swansea win in this five-goal thriller.

Robin van Persie fired the Gunners into the lead five minutes into the game, but Swansea equalised shortly after from a Scott Sinclair penalty after Swans winger Nathan Dyer was brought down in the box by Aaron Ramsey.

Brendan Rodgers' Swansea side then put themselves in front after a 57th minute Nathan Dyer goal, however, Theo Walcott managed to pull one back for Arsenal, tying the teams at 2-2 going into the final 10 minutes of the game.

Arsenal's Theo Walcott (C) makess a pass

Heading into the final seconds of the game, a draw seemed inevitable. However, a Danny Graham last-minute winner handed the newly promoted Swansea side a memorable win and catapulted the Welsh side into the top half of the Premier League for the first time in their history.

2 Key Battles

Alexandre Lacazette vs Alfie Mawson

Alfie Mawson showed why Paolo Maldini has posters of him on his wall after leading by example in an incredible win over Liverpool in the Swans last home fixture where the centre-back grabbed the winner.

And after shutting down a scintillating Liverpool front three, Alexandre Lacazette will have to be at his very best to overcome Mawson's recent good form.

Lacazette is, however, Arsenals leading goal scorer this season, scoring nine times for the Gunners in 24 appearances and with the possible imminent arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the Arsenal forward might be trying to prove a point that he deserves his place in the starting 11; Mawson beware.


Swansea's 4-4-1 vs Arsenal's new 4-3-3 formation (defence vs attack)

After a very disappointing defeat to  Bournemouth a few weeks ago, which saw Arsenal drop further off the pace for Champions League football next season, Arsene Wenger made a tactical change which hadn't been seen by Arsenal fans for years; an attacking 4-3-3 formation. 

Since the tactical switch-up Arsenal have been firing on all cylinders, winning their last two games and ending their recent run of poor results.  

Swansea will likely go with the 4-4-1 formation that saw them frustrate Liverpool for 90 minutes in their last home fixture at the Liberty Stadium, and the lone striker on that night Andre Ayew will have to put in another hard shift up top if Swansea are going to get anything out of this game.

It might be a case of attack vs defence, which proved to be very successful for the Swans against Jurgen Klopp's attacking Liverpool outlet. Arsenal, however, have more creativity in the midfield than Liverpool do, and this could prove pivotal.  

Team News

With Alexis Sanchez now officially gone, Arsenal may hand a starting position to newcomer Henrikh Mkhitaryan. 

Arsene Wenger will also have the opportunity to further bolster his attack with the returns of Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck. 

Swansea's only injury concern going into this one is Portuguese midfielder, Renato Sanches.

During the Swans 1-1 FA Cup tie against Notts County, Sanchez was taken off after 32 minutes of action, pulling his hamstring during a Swansea counter-attack.

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Clive Mason/GettyImages


Potential Arsenal Lineup: Cech. Koscielny, Mustafi, Monreal, Bellerin, Elneny, Xhaka, Wilshere, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Lacazette.

Potential Swansea Lineup: Fabianski. Naughton, Van Der Hoorn, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson, Dyer, Fer, Ki, Clucas, Ayew.

Prediction

The game promises to be an exciting one, with both teams coming off the back of very good results.

If league positions were anything to go by, however, it would suggest this should be a comfortable win for the Gunners.

Putting aside Swansea's brilliant win against Liverpool, the Swans have failed to be consistent after victories so far this season.

If Arsenal can emulate a performance like that against Crystal Palace, then Swansea may just have their work cut out for them. Although, the newly appointed Carlos Carvahal certainly has his new side going in the right direction, which in turn makes this an interesting match-up. 

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