Preview: Swansea City vs. Watford - prediction, team news, lineups

Automatic promotion contenders Swansea City and Watford meet at the Liberty Stadium in arguably the pick of Saturday's Championship fixtures.

Third-place Swansea were held at home to Reading last time out but enter this game three points better off than Watford, who are down in fifth.

Match preview

After drawing with Brentford and losing to Huddersfield Town, Watford picked up a much-needed victory at home to leaders Norwich City on Boxing Day.

Ismaila Sarr scored the only goal of the game shortly before half time to make it a winning start for new head coach Xisco Munoz.

Watford's game with Millwall three days later was postponed due to a coronavirus outbreak in their opponents' camp, meaning that they should be well rested for this game.

More rested than Swansea, at least, given that the Welsh side were in action on Wednesday evening when playing out that aforementioned stalemate with the Royals.

Steve Cooper's men played some good football but could not find a way past opposition keeper Rafael Cabral, with Andre Ayew coming closest to doing so.

Swansea are back at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday and will be looking to make it three wins in four either side of that goalless draw.

City have have a good record when it comes to their opening Championship fixture of a new year, winning on each of the last five occasions.

However, Watford have lost only one of their last five league visits to Swansea - that coming in January 2016 when the sides were competing for Premier League points.

This will be the first meeting between the pair since 2017-18, the sides taking it in turns to win their home fixture 2-1 that season, again in the top tier.

Swansea City Championship form: DWLWWD

Watford Championship form: LWWDLW

Team News

Swansea defender Ryan Bennett sustained a hamstring injury against Reading and is expected to spend a spell on the sidelines.

That opens a spot for Joel Latibeaudiere to make just his second league start of the campaign, with Marc Guehi and Ben Cabango also expected to get the nod.

Changes for Swansea are otherwise unlikely, even accounting for the quick turnaround in matches.

As for Watford, they begin life without Etienne Capoue after the midfielder was sold to Villarreal on Wednesday.

Nathaniel Chalobah and Will Hughes are the two most likely options to replace Capoue for this trip to South Wales.

Captain Troy Deeney is in line to start up top and will be looking to build on a return of six goal involvements in his last seven league appearances, netting in three of his last four games.

Swansea City possible starting lineup: Woodman; Cabango, Latibeaudiere, Guehi; Roberts, Smith, Fulton, Grimes, Bidwell; Lowe, Ayew

Watford possible starting lineup: Foster; Femenia, Sierralta, Wilmot, Masina; Sarr, Chalobah, Cleverley, Sema; Deeney, Gray

We say: Swansea City 2-1 Watford

This is a huge match at the top end of the Championship between two sides targeting automatic promotion.

Swansea are unbeaten in eight league matches at the Liberty Stadium, while Watford have won only one won of their last seven on their travels, so we are backing the Swans to prevail.

Top betting tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting over 1.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.