- Team form: Birmingham City have won their last five consecutive matches in all competitions (W5, D0, L0), while Swansea City have won four, drawn three and lost three of their last ten in all competitions.
- Head-to-head: Swansea City have not won any of their last three home games against Birmingham in the Championship.
- Away form: Birmingham City are unbeaten away from home in all competitions, picking up three wins and two draws from five trips away and conceding just three goals in total.
Birmingham to bust up the Swans’ party
Swansea City will be looking to make a statement against Championship promotion hopefuls Birmingham City at the Swansea.com Stadium in the Carabao Cup on Saturday, but we think they'll be busted up by the Blues.
Vítor Matos has got the Swans playing a possession-first 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 with some good high-pressing and wide overloads, so it will be interesting to see how they fare against Chris Davies' compact 4-4-2, which can sit in a narrow block, sharp press triggers and then hit teams on the break. Swansea's recent form has been patchy (W4, D3, L3), but there have been some signs of life in their latest three matches, with wins over Charlton Athletic and Udinese coming into this.
Blues are unbeaten on their travels
Form and away record
The Blues have been a revelation this season and are flying into this matchup with five straight wins under their belts.
- They're unbeaten away from home in all competitions (W3, D2) and have conceded a measly three goals on their travels, so they should hold up well to Swansea's attacks.
Fixture context
Birmingham also have the psychological advantage in this fixture as Swansea haven't won any of their last three matches against the Blues in the Championship.
But the last meeting between these sides came at this venue in the reverse fixture six months ago and that game finished 1-1 in the second-tier, so we don't expect the teams to be too far apart again this weekend.
Back Birmingham to nick it
Birmingham are listed as favourites at 2.32, which is a generous price considering Swansea are at 2.9 and the draw at 3.4. We're going to take the visitors here as they have serious momentum and some serious steel on their away trips.
We do think this will be a tight cup scrap though and feel that both teams to score at 1.65 and under 2.5 goals at 1.95 are almost mirror images of the 1-1 draw that we've predicted in the correct score market.
