Swansea City match preview

Introduction

• West Ham United travel to Wales to face Swansea on Saturday hoping to follow up an opening-day Barclays Premier League win over Aston Villa with another three points.

• The Hammers have never visited the Liberty Stadium before, and haven't played the Swans for over 13 years.

• Last week saw Mohamed Diame and Jussi Jaaskelainen make their debuts for the club and, following an impressive cameo against Villa, Modibo Maiga could be next in line to make his first start for the club.

• Alou Diarra is also pushing for a place in the starting XI. The Frenchman is yet to make an appearance in claret and blue after joining from Olympique Marseille following the conclusion of the Hammers pre-season.

• Matt Jarvis could also feature having completed his move from Wolverhampton Wanderers on Friday. The England international will travel with Big Sam's side to Wales and could potentially start the Hammers' second game of the season.

• The Hammers clash with Swansea City is one of eight games taking place in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday. The following games will also take place; Aston Villa v Everton, Manchester United v Fulham, Norwich City v QPR, Southampton Wigan Athletic, Sunderland v Reading, Tottenham Hotspur v West Bromwich Albion and Chelsea v Newcastle United the late kick-off at 5.30pm.

Last time out

Barclays Premier League
Saturday 18 August 2012
West Ham United 1-0 Aston Villa
West Ham United: Jaaskelainen, Reid, McCartney (O'Brien 71), Collins, Demel, Nolan (Tomkins 73), Taylor, Noble, Diame, Cole (Maiga 81), Vaz Te.
Subs not used: Henderson, Diarra, O'Neill, Maynard.
Goals: Nolan 40

Barclays Premier League
Saturday 18 August 2012
QPR 0-5 Swansea City
Swansea City: Vorm, Taylor, Chico, Williams, Rangel, Britton, Michu (Gower 84), Dyer (Sinclair 77), Routledge, De Guzman (Agustien 70), Graham.
Subs not used: Tremmel, Tate, Richards, Moore.
Goals: Michu 8, 53, Dyer 63, 71, Sinclair 81

Previous meeting

• Saturday's trip to the Liberty Stadium will be the first time West Ham United have visited the ground which opened in 2005. They will, however, be hoping for more luck than the last time they faced the Swans. In January 1999, the Division Three club shocked the Premier League Hammers in the FA Cup third round. After a 1-1 draw at the Boleyn Ground, the likes of Anton Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole travelled to Vetch Field, where a Martin Thomas strike gave the Welsh club a 1-0 win.

Swansea City: Roger Freestone, Steve Jones, Jason Smith, Matt Bound, Mike Howard, Nick Cusack, Stewart Roberts, Martin Thomas, Jonathan Coates, Steve Watkin, Julian Alsop
Goals: Martin Thomas 29

West Ham United: Shaka Hislop, Tim Breacker (Richard Hall 72), Julian Dicks, Rio Ferdinand, Neil Ruddock, Steve Lomas, Trevor Sinclair, Frank Lampard, Manny Omoyinmi (Eyal Berkovic 46), Stan Lazaridis, John Hartson

Background

• West Ham United and Swansea City have met 51 times over a period of 90 years, the Hammers have won 23, Swansea have won 16 and 12 have ended in a draw.

• The first meeting between the two sides came on 7 January 1922 in the FA Cup and ended in a 0-0 draw. The replay on 11 January also ended 0-0, and the two sides met for the third time in nine days on 16 January when Swansea won 1-0 to progress.

• West Ham visited Wales twice last season, beating Cardiff City 2-1 in the npower Championship in March before winning 2-0 in the Play-Off semi-final.

Last six meetings
(Premier League unless stated)

13 Jan 1999 Swansea City v West Ham United L 1-0 (FA Cup third-round replay)
02 Jan 1999 West Ham United v Swansea City D 1-1 (FA Cup third round)
07 Oct 1985 Swansea City v West Ham United W 2-3 (Milk Cup)
24 Sep 1985 West Ham United v Swansea City W 3-0 (Milk Cup)
05 Apr 1983 Swansea City v West Ham United W 1-5 (Division One)
27 Dec 1982 West Ham United v Swansea City W 3-2 (Division One)

Overall record v Swansea City (all competitions) W 23 D 12 L 16

Ten-year record

West Ham United

2011/12 Championship 3rd (86 points - promoted via Play-Offs)
2010/11 Premier League 20th (33 points)
2009/10 Premier League 17th (35 points)
2008/09 Premier League 9th (51 points)
2007/08 Premier League 10th (49 points)
2006/07 Premier League 15th (41 points)
2005/06 Premier League 9th (55 points)
2004/05 Championship 6th (73 points - promoted via Play-Offs)
2003/04 Championship 4th (74 points)
2002/03 Premier League 18th (42 points - relegated to Championship)
2001/02 Premier League 7th (53 points)

Swansea City

2011/12 Premier League 11th (47 points)
2010/11 Championship 3rd (80 points)
2009/10 Championship 7th (69 points)
2008/09 Championship 8th (68 points)
2007/08 League One 1st (92 points)
2006/07 League One 7th (72 points)
2005/06 League One 6th (71 points)
2004/05 League Two 3rd (80 points)
2003/04 League Two 10th (59 points)
2002/03 League Two 21st (49 points)
2001/02 League Two 20th (51 points)

Referee

• The match referee will be Martin Atkinson.

• A referee since the age of 16, Atkinson was promoted to the Football League list of assistant referees in 1998. In 2000, Atkinson was promoted to the Select Group of assistant referees, allowing him to run the line in Premier League matches.

• Atkinson joined the National List of referees for the Football League at the start of the 2003/04 season before taking charge of his first Premier League fixture on 20 April 2005 when Manchester City entertained Birmingham City.

• Atkinson was the man in the middle at the 2006 FA Community Shield between Chelsea and Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. He also took charge of the 2008 FA Trophy final between Ebbsfleet United and Torquay United at Wembley Stadium.

• Atkinson refereed one West Ham game last season - the 2-1 home defeat to Burnley on 3 December 2011.

Team news

• Matt Jarvis and Modibo Maiga are both pushing for starting places in what is expected to be a three pronged Hammers attack. Ricardo Vaz Te and Carlton Cole are likely to start but one spot could be up for grabs.

• Jack Collison is unlikely to play after missing the start of the season as he continues to manage his long-term knee issues.

• France midfielder Alou Diarra is yet to make an appearance for the Hammers, having signed on the day of the final pre-season game in Braga. Diarra also did not feature in last week's win over Aston Villa but could make his debut in Wales.

Old boys

• The only player to have had an affiliation with both clubs who could take part on Saturday is Swansea's Leon Britton. The London-born midfielder joined West Ham United in 1998 for a fee of £400,000, a record fee for a 16-year-old at the time. He didn't however make a single appearance for the Hammers and left the club to join Swansea in 2003 after a successful loan spell.

General Information

• Limited tickets remain for tomorrow's game and no tickets will be available on the day so fans should click here to order.

• The weather forecast for Saturday is for sunny spells with a maximum temperature of 19C.

• There are no planned engineering works on the London Underground this weekend, and national rail services from London terminals to Swansea should be running smoothly.