Swansea City vs Liverpool, Premier League Gameweek 4: Open Thread

Swansea plays Liverpool today in the final game of the weekend. For viewers in the United States, the broadcast begins on NBCSN at 2:30pm ET, building up to the 3pm ET kick-off.

This is an intriguing match to me. All of the pundits and bookmakers are predicting a Liverpool win tonight, so as a Swansea City supporter, it’s a weird feeling knowing that no one is rating your club to win. At some point, Swansea City will come good at home against a top side in the Premier League. The last time the Swans put in a brilliant performance at home in the league against a top side was May 13, 2012 when Swansea beat Liverpool 1-0 on the final day of the 2011-12 season. Yes, it’s been that long.

While I’m a big believer in Swansea’s system and their group of players, I don’t think tonight is the night that they’ll come good where each player will put on a first class performance. Swansea, despite their win against West Brom in the last gameweek, are in a slump and haven’t been able to play at their peak performance — in the league — for quite some time. It seems they’ve been saving their better performances for, this season, the Europa League and, last season, the League Cup.

Starting lineups:

Swansea: Vorm, Rangel, Flores, Williams, Davies, Britton, Shelvey, Michu, Dyer, Routledge, Bony

Subs: Tremmel, Amat, Tiendalli, de Guzman, Canas, Pozuelo, Vazquez.

Liverpool: Mignolet, Wisdom, Skrtel, Sakho, Enrique, Lucas, Gerrard, Henderson, Coutinho, Moses, Sturridge

Subs: Jones, Toure, Alberto, Aspas, Sterling, Ibe, Kelly

Liverpool have the firing power and team confidence to grind out a victory tonight in South Wales. Steven Gerrard will be playing his 400th game for the Reds as captain. With a win tonight, the Reds will jump to the top of the Premier League and will open up a three point gap over second place.

Before, during or after today’s match, join the conversation in the comments section below with soccer fans from around the globe.