Boss of this weekend's opponents Aston Villa clearly felt it would be worth his while to see what we were up to...
It seems we've had a few spies in our ranks! God knows what Paul Lambert thought he'd learn by watching us in our open training session that he didn't already know, but I do understand the thought process behind him rocking up yesterday - though I doubt he reserved a ticket in his own name (as the club requested anyone wanting to be in attendance to do). Possibly a little obvious.
That being said, it must have been fairly hard to stay inconspicuous when you're as known as Lambert is to Swansea fans, especially when you're accompanied by two Aston Villa coaches! There's a photo of the Villa boss on the Planet Swans forum with (I assume) the user's daughter [link], so Lambert was clearly confident enough to make himself known and pose for photos!
He's evidently doing his groundwork ahead of this weekend's clash - though whether it'll bear fruit remains to be seen. With Benteke missing I'm (as usual) confident of a positive result for the Swans, and with Aston Villa only scoring seven goals in the eight games their powerful forward has missed it could be they once again find themselves lacking up top. Jordi Amat will continue to deputise for Chico, though Kyle Bartley's arrival in injury time against Newcastle does lend itself to the possibility that he'll be preferred to the young Spaniard, so we can't guarantee who'll be present in our back four just yet.
Whoever is selected, they most certainly can't take it easy just because the big Belgian is out injured. Agbonlahor has pace to burn, and up against Angel Rangel he could well get quite a bit of joy. We need to be wary of that, and if De Guzman starts at right wing again he needs to track back and help out Rangel more, as until Routledge went to that side last week we were looking very exposed down our right flank. It's even possible Dyer will be selected ahead of the Dutchman for this very reason, but I'll leave this kind of talk for the preview, which will be up later tonight/early tomorrow.
Until then!