Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Swansea City. The FA Cup Third Round.
MolineuxAttendance22,976.
Saturday 6 January 2018 15:22, UK
Top of the Championship meets bottom of the Premier League as Wolves and Swansea clash in the FA Cup third round.
Nuno Espírito Santo's side extended their lead at the top of the table with a 3-0 win over Brentford on Tuesday which stretched their unbeaten run to 12 matches.
Wolves have already beaten Premier League outfit Southampton in the Carabao Cup this season and held Manchester City before losing on penalties.
Swansea suffered a 2-0 defeat at home to Tottenham on Tuesday, leaving them bottom of the league with just one win in their last six.
Wolves will again be without suspended captain Danny Batth.
The defender serves the second of a three-match ban following his red card against Bristol City and Ryan Bennett could continue in his absence.
Coach Nuno Espirito Santo may opt to ring the changes elsewhere, with the likes of Ivan Cavaleiro, Kortney Hause, Bright Enobakhare and Ruben Vinagre pushing for starts.
Highly-rated young Spanish striker Rafa Mir will also be keen to show what he can do after joining from Valencia this week
Swansea goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski will be rested at Molineux, Kyle Naughton is suspended and veteran pair Angel Rangel and Leon Britton are sidelined by calf injuries.
Ki Sung-yueng (calf) and Tammy Abraham (hip) could also miss out, but Kyle Bartley is available again following a knee ligament injury and Wilfried Bony returns to the squad after missing four games with a hamstring problem.
This is the first meeting between these sides since April 2012, when they shared a 4-4 draw at Liberty Stadium in the Premier League.
Swansea have been eliminated from the FA Cup by Wolves in both previous ties against them, which both took place in the third round - they lost 4-0 in January 1938 and 5-3 in January 1957.
Wolves are set to face a Premier League side for the third time in three seasons in the third round - they lost 1-0 to West Ham in January 2016 and beat Stoke 2-0 last season.
This is Swansea's ninth consecutive away FA Cup match (W3 L5) - only one team has had a longer run of away FA Cup games, with Stockport playing 11 away in a row between December 1996 and February 2001.
I'm not surprised Wolves are favourites here. Carlos Carvalhal doesn't really know his players and he's been brought in with the directive of fighting relegation, so I would expect him to mix things up.
Wolves have got bags of goals in them and are that far clear in the Sky Bet Championship that they can have a real go here, so I'm backing them to win this one comfortably.
Charlie predicts: 2-0 (6/1 with Sky Bet)
