Numbers game: Birmingham v Swans
Swansea City look to continue their rousing start to the new Championship when they go to Birmingham City tonight (7.45pm).
We check out the key numbers heading into the big game.
BIRMINGHAM
2 – Birmingham manager Garry Monk has lost just two of his last 11 home Championship matches (W7 D2). Only one of those defeats was as Blues boss, against Middlesbrough in March.
19 – Birmingham finished 19th in the Championship last season, five points clear of the drop zone, courtesy of a final-day home win over Fulham.
270 – Monk played 270 games for the Swans, the last of which was a 3-1 League Cup defeat at Birmingham in September 2013. That was also his final game as a player.
10 – Despite their struggles, the Blues banked 10 home league victories in total last season, which was more than 11 other Championship clubs including Preston, who finished seventh.
2 – Birmingham have failed to score in two of their three games to date this season. They lost 1-0 at Middlesbrough in the league and 2-0 at Reading in the Carabao Cup. They did score in their only home game thus far, a 2-2 draw with Norwich on the opening day.
9 – Former Sheffield United forward Che Adams finished as top scorer at Birmingham last season with nine goals.
SWANS
3 – The Swans will attempt to make it three straight league wins at the start of a new season for the first time since 2003-04, when Brian Flynn’s team beat Bury, Cheltenham and Boston. New signing Lee Trundle scored in all three of those victories.
2 – The Swans will go in search of a second successive clean sheet tonight having shut out Preston last weekend. The last time they kept back-to-back league clean sheets was in May 2017, when they beat Everton and Sunderland.
23.7 – The average of the Swans’ starting side against Preston last weekend was just 23.7 years old, and they are likely to field another youthful line-up tonight.
3 – Having triumphed at Sheffield United on the opening day, the Swans will attempt to make it two successive away wins this evening. They last registered consecutive away league victories back in January 2017, when they won at Crystal Palace and then Liverpool.
4 – Graham Potter’s men are one of only three teams in the Championship with a 100 per cent record at this early stage of the season. The others are Leeds and Aston Villa.
32 – Potter played 32 games for Birmingham after coming through the ranks at the club in the early 1990s.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
The Swans and Birmingham have met on 31 occasions stretching back to a Christmas Day encounter in 1946. It is the Blues who have the upper hand, with 16 victories compared to the Swans’ eight.