Swansea City play host to Bristol City on Sunday afternoon now trailing their next opponents in the Championship by two points.
After an inconsistent season, these two clubs occupy 16th and 17th position in the standings with both managers under pressure to keep their jobs in the long term.
Match preview
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Having defeated Blackburn Rovers at the weekend, Swansea head coach Russell Martin would have felt that his side were ready to trend in the right direction for the remainder of the campaign.
However, the Welsh outfit were well beaten by Stoke City on Tuesday evening, conceding three second-half goals as well as having Ryan Bennett sent off.
The defender's dismissal inevitably had an impact on the rest of the match, but Swansea have now lost six of their last 10 fixtures in the Championship, conceding 15 goals.
While Martin will hope that the club's hierarchy show some patience with regards to their progression, he ultimately requires another win as soon as possible if he is to have a better chance of riding out the current storm.
On a positive note, Swansea have prevailed in two of their last three home fixtures, while it goes unnoticed that they have the joint-fourth-best defensive record in fixtures on familiar territory.
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Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson finds himself in a similar position to his counterpart, the experienced boss seemingly being at the point of no return if his team had lost to Reading in midweek.
Although the Robins were made to work for their 2-1 victory over the Championship strugglers, it earned Pearson some breathing space ahead of the trip to the Swansea.com Stadium.
Antoine Semenyo's fifth strike of the campaign was the high point, but it was also the first time in six attempts that Bristol City had avoided conceding more than two goals in a game.
Not only does Sunday's game represent a chance to finally reach the 40-point mark, Pearson will want to finally end the wait to record back-to-back victories in the Championship this season.
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Team News
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Joe Williams could be given the nod in the Bristol City midfield, despite the expectation that Han-Noah Massengo will shake off a hip injury.
The remainder of the team will likely stay the same, with midfielder Callum O'Dowda potentially missing out on a place on the substitutes' bench due to a knee issue.
Although Ryan Manning will return to the Swansea back three after serving a ban, Bennett is sidelined courtesy of the red card that he collected against Stoke.
Martin could name a more attack-minded team than the one which lined up in the Potteries, similar to the strategy which worked versus Blackburn last weekend.
That should see Jamie Paterson line up in a creative area, with Jay Fulton potentially dropping down to the substitutes' bench.
Swansea City possible starting lineup:
Fisher; Cabango, Downes, Manning; Christie, Grimes, Ntcham, Wolf; Paterson; Obafemi, Piroe
Bristol City possible starting lineup:
O'Leary; Kalas, Klose, Vyner; Dasilva, Scott, Williams, Pring; Weimann; Martin, Semenyo
We say: Swansea City 1-1 Bristol City
While both clubs can afford to push for all three points given their respective league positions, the two managers will also be wary of what a defeat could mean for their future. With that in mind, we feel that a competitive, low-scoring draw is the most likely outcome.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Swansea City win with a probability of 56.1%. A draw had a probability of 23.7% and a win for Bristol City had a probability of 20.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Swansea City win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.08%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.43%) and 2-1 (9.73%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.27%), while for a Bristol City win it was 0-1 (6.53%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 5.6% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Swansea City would win this match.
