TALKING TACTICS: Arsenal v Swans

Football statistics website WhoScored.com are here to crunch the numbers ahead of our Monday night Premier League clash against Arsenal.

With their highest ever Premier League points tally in the bag, Swansea now look to confirm a highest-ever finish in the division with eighth place looking almost certain.
And with Southampton sitting only four points ahead of the Swans, who enter the final three games of their season in fine shape, Garry Monk's side could sneak seventh spot.
A 2-0 win over Stoke last week made it back-to-back victories for the Swans; the only teams in the whole Premier League that can match Swansea's current run are Manchester City (three successive wins) and Chelsea (two).
Last week's victory was a result built on the reliable foundations of what has developed into a solid rearguard under Monk's stewardship, with Swansea registering a 12th clean sheet of the season. Only Chelsea (16), Southampton (14), West Brom (14) and Liverpool (13) have kept more over the course of the current campaign.



An impressive partnership has been built between Federico Fernandez and captain Ashley Williams at the heart of the back line, while Lukasz Fabianski, providing the last line of defence, has excelled behind those two.
WhoScored.com use over 200 raw statistics live and in play to calculate an objective rating for every Premier League player and team, and according to those ratings, Fabianski has been the best goalkeeper in the top flight this season. His average rating of 7.02 makes him the league's most formidable stopper, with only Fraser Forster and Simon Mignolet (13 each) keeping more clean sheets than the Pole (12). Given his impressive rating, he is currently between the sticks in WhoScored's Premier League team of the season for 2014/15.
He returns to the Emirates this weekend in his current role to face his former employers, who are far from goal shy but will have to be at their very best to find a way past the determined Swansea number one. With a statistically calculated strength of 'concentration', he will prove difficult to find a way past.
Also in that team of the season is Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez, who will provide a significant threat to Fabianski's goal, having struck five goals in his last five appearances for the Gunners. He has also been named WhoScored man of the match - awarded to the player with the highest rating - in four of those games.
With wide-ranging strengths according to WhoScored's stats, from dribbling and long shots to direct free-kicks and passing, Sanchez will hope to find a route to goal, but as this Swansea team have shown time and again - in particular in their 2-1 victory over Arsenal at the Liberty back in November - they are a more than capable outfit, and could pose a threat to the hosts' current unbeaten run.

*WhoScored.com is a unique website and one of the fastest growing in the sports industry, specialising in the in-depth analysis of detailed football data. Provided with unique stats, they compile and create comprehensive analysis on the major European divisions, including live match stats and player ratings. You can follow @WhoScored and their editor-in-chief @alitweedale on Twitter.