Preview | Derby County v Swansea City
Swansea City will look to continue their winning start to life under Steve Cooper when they travel to face Derby County at Pride Park this afternoon (3pm).
The Swans had a 100 per cent record under new head coach Cooper during pre-season, and they carried that into the campaign proper as they came from behind to beat Hull at the Liberty Stadium on the opening weekend.
They face a Rams side who are also one from one, after Tom Lawrence’s brace helped them beat Huddersfield on Monday night in Phillip Cocu’s first game at the helm.
After an active final few days of the transfer window, new signings Aldo Kalulu and Sam Surridge will be hoping to make their Swansea debuts following their respective loan moves from Basel and Bournemouth.
Kristoffer Peterson, meanwhile, will be pushing for a starting place after making his bow from the bench last weekend.
Derby were beaten play-off finalists last season and – despite losing manager Frank Lampard and seeing loan players like Harry Wilson and Mason Mount return to their parent clubs – will have high hopes of once again getting in the promotion picture.
Should Swansea pick up a result in the East Midlands, it would serve as an early statement of intent in this 2019-20 campaign.
Team news
Swans boss Cooper has Wayne Routledge available after the winger recovered from the minor niggle that kept him out against Hull.
Kalulu and Surridge have trained with their team-mates all week and are in the mix, and selection in attacking areas will intriguing with Borja Baston having netted against Hull with the likes of Nathan Dyer also performing strongly.
Midfielder Tom Carroll has returned to full training, but is not ready for match action just yet.
Pre-match views
Steve Cooper: “We go into the weekend looking forward to putting on another good performance.
“We grew into the game against Hull and ended up being good for the result and we want to build on that.
“This is an away game against a big club who have had quite a lot of change there with the new manager and players coming in and going out.
“These are the games we want to be playing and we are very confident. We will be focusing on ourselves and be committed to doing the best we can.”
Phillip Cocu: “We have to stay focused, it is another tough game coming up.
“It's a good opponent, they have a lot of quality in the side, new signings also, so we have to step up in our game again and show the best of ourselves.
“With the fans and the home crowd to support we have to fight to get a good result again."
Remember the last time?
The Swans suffered defeat on their last visit to Pride Park, as a superb brace from Harry Wilson gave the Rams the spoils.
Wilson, on loan from Liverpool, fired in a thunderous effort from 25 yards to open the scoring in the 31st minute.
The midfielder added another 10 minutes later as he intercepted Oli McBurnie’s pass before finding the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
An own goal from Fikayo Tomori pulled one back for the visitors in the 87th minute following a Matt Grimes corner, but it proved too little too late for the Swans.
Prime numbers
4 – Derby suffered just three four defeats at home in all competitions last term, losing to Leeds (twice), Millwall and Aston Villa.
6 – Swansea City are unbeaten in six Championship matches, their last defeat coming at QPR in mid-April. They have won three and drawn three of those six.
