Swansea City v Crystal Palace: The talking points

Swansea City are setting their sights on a first home win of the season when they take on Crystal Palace this weekend.

The Swans are desperate for victory having slipped to the bottom of the Premier League table despite last Saturday's draw at Everton - but Palace are hungry for points too.

Here we look at the big talking points heading into the game.

In March 2009, Victor Moses, Jose Fonte and future Swan Shefki Kuqi were all on target as Neil Warnock's Palace side won 3-1 in a Championship game at the Liberty, with Gorka Pintado netting for the home side.

Since then, however, Palace have not had much joy against the Swans.

In 10 meetings between the clubs since - four in the second tier, six in the Premier League - the Swans have lost just once, and that was a fairly meaningless end-of-season encounter at Selhurst Park in 2015.

Bob Bradley must hope the Swans' record looks a little more impressive come 5pm this Saturday.

Jay Fulton was arguably the Swans' star performer at Everton last weekend as he made only his third Premier League start for the club.

He last made the XI for a top-flight game back in February 2015, while his only other start came at Sunderland in May 2014.

After Everton, will his wait for another opportunity be a little shorter?

Certainly, Fulton made a strong case to keep his place with his display at Goodison Park.

The Swans have had some difficult fixtures on their own patch so far this season, which goes some way to explaining why they have banked only two points on home soil so far in 2016-17.

But Bradley's men are well aware that their record in SA1 must improve.

Sunderland's win over Hull last weekend means the Swans are now the only Premier League club without a home victory this term. The sooner that statistic is wiped out, the better.

Gylfi Sigurdsson's penalty at Everton means he has four goals this season, making him the Swans' joint leading scorer alongside Leroy Fer.

This time last year, Sigurdsson had only two club goals to his name, while he was on three at this stage in the previous campaign.

Fer, meantime, has not had such a prolific start in front of goal since his days at FC Twente. 

If Sigurdsson and Fer can maintain their current pace throughout the season, they will both have a healthy goal tally come May. 

 

Alan Pardew has dubbed Palace's trip to Swansea as a "pivotal game in our season" after a sequence of five straight league defeats which has seen his side slip to 16th in the table.  

Coincidentally, Palace arrived in SA1 after an identical run last season, and left with a satisfactory 1-1 draw.

The Swans' challenge is to ensure it is a different story this time around as they face a Palace side who have taken fewer points per game (0.71) than any other Premier League outfit in this calendar year.

The Swans are averaging 1.10 points per game in 2016.