I am loath to write off any team after one poor performance, but I watched all of Coventry City's 2-0 defeat to Brentford on Saturday and they were so bad that they cannot play at that level and be competitive against any solid Championship team and Swansea are better than that and genuine playoff contenders again this season. The Sky Blues were very slow to close down and left huge gaps in the middle of the pitch and on their left flank, I must have watched the whole of 400+ games (half live) in the second tier since 2014-15 and I cannot recall any team allowing the opposition so much space. Brentford had 55% possession which doesn't sound or mean much , it also seems incredibly low to anyone who was watching, but I suspect that was because most of that was in the City half and without a visiting player within 5 metres of the ball !

 

Their 20 yo defender Sam McCallum said in an interview with the local Coventry newspaper:"It’s a massive step up from League One and there is a huge gap. We have to deal with it throughout the season, by finding our feet and getting some goals." I think the issue is as much at the other end of the pitch, they have allowed 16 attempts on target on their goal in the last two starts ( it should have been more) and they have conceded 5 in their two "home" games so far, home for them is St Andrews, the Birmingham City ground. That is no step into the unknown for the Swans whom we backed to win against the Blues here post lockdown, back in July, when they were big and easy winners and I noted ........... They (Brum results) came against Hull, Wednesday, Reading and Huddersfield, all teams with issues and/or scoring problems and inferior to Swansea, who have themselves scored 10 goals in their last five road games and won the reverse fixture 3-0. In that the Blues had just 27% possession ( I know it doesn't mean much, but that is super low in the Championship) and zero attempts on target.

 

The Swans have already won the road for us this season (at Wycombe) when I spoke once more about how good they are on the road................ Swansea made the playoffs last season, have a talented head coach and decent squad and have regrouped after some financial issues to life back in the second tier, they have four points on board ,are yet to concede and they play with great freedom on the road, losing just 4/26 away from home scoring exactly 1.5 goals per game.

 

They won that 2-0 and this is their next away start, they will have additional hunger today as they suffered their first defeat of the season at home to Huddersfield on Saturday, losing 2-1, but missing four BC's. They clearly deserved something from that and will get more space this evening on the road and especially against Coventry.