Saturday 11 March 2017 14:39, UK
Hull will be targeting a third victory of the season against Swansea when they meet in a Premier League relegation battle on Saturday.
The Tigers have already beaten the Swans 2-0 in both August's reverse league fixture and January's FA Cup third-round tie.
Victory would move Hull to within one point of 17th-placed Crystal Palace with the other teams around them not playing this weekend.
But Swansea have roared into life since the arrival of Paul Clement, winning five of their eight league games and last weekend's 3-2 victory against Burnley moved them five points clear of the bottom three.
A draw or win at the KCOM Stadium could lift the Swans up to 14th in the table, depending on Bournemouth's result against West Ham.
Hull will have Curtis Davies available for the first time since the end of January after recovering from a hamstring strain, but manager Marco Silva confirmed there would be no other returnees.
It means Dieumerci Mbokani, Michael Dawson, Evandro, Ryan Mason, Moses Odubajo, Will Keane and Markus Henriksen are still out of action for the Tigers.
Kyle Naughton will not be available for Swansea suffering a hamstring injury against Burnley and is likely to be replaced by Angel Rangel.
However, some good news for the Swans is that Jefferson Montero (hamstring) and Ki Sung-Yueng (knee) are set to return to the squad.
Swansea won their last Premier League game at the KCOM Stadium (1-0 in December 2014) but have since lost there in the League Cup and FA Cup.
Abel Hernandez has scored in both meetings between these sides this season.
All four goals Hull City have scored against the Swans this season have come in the final 15 minutes of games.
Since Paul Clement was named Swansea City manager on January 3rd 2017, the Swans have won 15 points (W5 D0 L3) - three more points than they'd won in their 19 games beforehand in 2016/17 (12).
However, Swansea have also conceded 15 goals in the Premier League since January 3rd - a tally only Bournemouth (21) have conceded more than.
Fernando Llorente has scored three goals in his last two Premier League appearances. The Spaniard hasn't scored in three successive league appearances since 25th January 2014 for Juventus in Serie A.
Gylfi Sigurdsson has already been involved in more Premier League goals this season (18 - eight goals, 10 assists) than in any other previous PL campaign, while he's already matched his tally of chances created from the entire 2015/16 season (57).
Sigurdsson has been involved in a goal in each of his last six Premier League appearances, scoring three and assisting four more in this run.
These two clubs have conceded the most goals in the final 30 minutes of Premier League matches this season: Hull City (28), Swansea City (27).
This is another big, big football match. If Swansea win this you could almost say they would be safe. I always thought Hull would struggle once they came into games they expected to win. It's alright against Manchester United and Liverpool when there's no expectation. I watched Hull last week at Leicester and they were never really in the game. I'm backing Swansea for a victory which could go a long way to maintaining their Premier League status.
PAUL PREDICTS: 1-2
Four wins in six has seen the Swans drift out from odds-on to 5/1 to go down, while their hosts are currently 4/9 to face the drop. Abel Hernandez, Fernando Llorente and Gylfi Sigurdsson share favouritism in the first goalscorer betting at 11/2 apiece, while Llorente is 7/1 for another brace.
Hull v Swansea is included in this weekend's Super 6, with £250,000 up for grabs for simply predicting the six correct scores. Enter your selections by here.
