Aston Villa vs Swansea City. The FA Cup Third Round.
Villa ParkAttendance30,572.
Friday 4 January 2019 16:20, UK
Goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic could make his Aston Villa debut in the FA Cup third-round clash with Swansea after completing his move from Gent on New Year's Day.
Axel Tuanzebe (foot) and Jack Grealish (shin) remain sidelined, while Orjan Nyland (Achilles) is out for the rest of the season and on-loan striker Tammy Abraham is ineligible.
Neil Taylor and Henri Lansbury could return for the Villans, with Dean Smith likely to rest Conor Hourihane and John McGinn. Tommy Elphick will be hoping to keep his place after he completed 90 minutes against QPR following his recall from Hull City.
Swansea's preparations for the tie have been disrupted by a bout of sickness in the camp. Jefferson Montero, Wilfried Bony and Oli McBurnie were unable to train on Thursday due to the bug and the trio will be assessed over the next 24 hours to see if they can be involved.
The rest of the squad is available, however, apart from the injured Martin Olsson and Tom Carroll. Swans boss Graham Potter plans to assess how his players have recovered following four matches in 11 days but he did hint at some changes to the team.
Aston Villa have won both of their previous FA Cup meetings with Swansea, beating them in the second round in both 1923-24 (2-0) and 1924-25 (3-1).
Swansea have won two of their last three away games against Aston Villa in all competitions, though they did lose their visit in the Championship this season.
Aston Villa have been knocked out at this stage of the FA Cup in each of the last two seasons. They've not been eliminated at the first hurdle in three consecutive years since a run of four between 2001-02 and 2004-05.
Swansea haven't won any of their last six away games in the FA Cup (D3 L3), with all three last season going to a replay.
