TALKING TACTICS: Swans v Stoke City
2nd May
Football statistics website WhoScored.com are here once again to preview our weekend Premier League fixture.
Last week's brilliant 3-2 comeback victory at St James' Park ensured Swansea obtained their highest ever Premier League points tally having broken the 50-point mark - an achievement for which manager Garry Monk deserves huge credit.
The squad have dealt with the departure of key man Wilfried Bony exceptionally well, and could even mount an assault on Southampton in seventh place with four games remaining. Whatever happens between now and the end of the campaign, this is a record-breaking season for the Swans.
In Bony's absence, many others have had to step to the fore and take on the goalscoring mantle, with Bafe Gomis providing the majority of the firepower. It was Nelson Oliveira, a January loan signing from European giants Benfica, that led the line last week, doing so to some effect.
The Portugal international had played in the Champions League as recently as December, and showed his class with a cool finish to level the clash after Ayoze Perez had given the hosts the lead. WhoScored.com use over 200 raw statistics to calculate a live score for every player during the game, and they rated Oliveira's performance as worthy of 7.69. Only a few others managed better, including man of the match Gylfi Sigurdsson.
WhoScored also use their wealth of statistics to generate strengths for every player, with Oliveira boasting 'long shots' as his best asset. He might have scored from close range last time out but he will be a threat from distance, too, this weekend.
Stoke will be the visitors to the Liberty Stadium this week, and Charlie Adam, who has been in great form of late, will be a player that the home side need to watch out for. The Scot followed up his wonderful 66-yarder at Chelsea with a winner against Southampton and a rocket of a strike against Sunderland last week. Few players can hit a ball quite as sweetly as Adam, and having scored penalties in two of his last three games against Swansea, he will be one to watch out for this weekend.
*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.
