Swansea City travel to Leeds United on Saturday with an excellent record in the Championship so far.
Sitting just behind Marcelo Bielsa’s table-toppers on goal difference, Swansea come into the fixture on the back of a five-game winning streak in all competitions.
Three of those wins are in the league, while they have progressed in the Carabao Cup after recording a resounding 6-0 victory over Cambridge United in Wednesday night’s second-round match.
Here’s everything you need to know about Saturday’s opponents.
Injuries
Long-serving club stalwart Nathan Dyer has been sidelined for the past fortnight with a knee problem suffered in Swansea’s 3-2 victory over Preston North End and is a major doubt to return in time for this one.
Summer signing from Basel, Aldo Kalulu, is another wide attacker who’s unlikely to be available after he was forced off at half-time of the same match.
Otherwise, Steve Cooper has a fully fit squad at his disposal.
Expected line-up
Plenty of players took their opportunity in Cooper’s fully-rotated midweek line-up, with Wayne Routledge getting on the scoresheet and Sam Surridge bagging a brace in the 6-0 win over Cambridge.
None of those players are expected to feature from the start here, although could make an impact from the bench.
It’s expected the Swansea boss will revert to the same starting XI that resoundingly beat Birmingham City 3-0 at home last weekend.
That’s a 4-2-3-1 formation with Freddy Woodman in goal, with Joe Rodon partnering Mike van der Hoorn in the centre of defence and Kyle Naughton and Connor Roberts in the full-back areas.
Matt Grimes and Jay Fulton will play at the base of midfield, behind Andre Ayew, Bersant Celina and Yan Dhanda providing support for the resurgent centre-forward Borja Baston.
Key player - Borja Baston
Arguably the story of the season in the Championship so far is Swansea’s Spanish striker Baston.
An Atletico Madrid academy product, he never quite made it at his parent club, but impressed in loan spells at Real Zaragoza, scoring 22 goals for the second-tier club, and Eibar, scoring 18 in the top flight as the Basque minnows established themselves as a solid La Liga club.
Having emerged as one of the rising stars of Spanish football, Swansea spent a significant £15.5m on Baston, their record signing at the time.
He scored just one Premier League goal for the club, and has since been sent back to Spain, failing to impress as he notched just six times across two seasons at Malaga and Alaves, before returning to his parent club who were unable to offload him this summer.
Now back in the team, he’s making up for lost time and has five goals in five appearances so far this season, leading the Championship’s goalscoring charts at this early stage.
He’s scored in all but one game so far, a goalless draw away to Derby in their second game of the campaign.
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