Carlos Carvalhal intends to repeat the outcome of his last clash against David Moyes on Saturday – and move Swansea City back out of the relegation zone.
Carvalhal’s Swans host West Ham at a snow-free Liberty Stadium where the game will be a re-match between the Portuguese manager and Moyes after their two previous encounters.
That was in 2010 when Carvalhal’s Sporting Lisbon knocked Moyes’ Everton out of the Europa League – winning 4-2 on aggregate, with a 3-0 home win for Sporting following a 2-1 defeat at Goodison Park.
Carvalhal saw his side respond to the disappointing 4-1 defeat by Brighton with a 2-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday this week as the club reached the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 1964.
The ex-Wednesday boss feels the result has lifted the players, but he is wary of the threat West Ham pose to his side, and he believes a strong backing from the home fans will be needed in order to secure another vital three points towards safety.
“They are a good team with some good players,” said Carvalhal. “I know the manager – I played against him in Europe when I was at Sporting and he was at Everton.
“He is a good manager and we have a lot of respect for West Ham. We expect a difficult game because they have a style that can create problems for opponents.
“But we know that style and we will try to block it. Then like all teams they have some weaknesses and we will try to exploit them.”
Andre Ayew could make the first start of his second Swansea spell. The striker has made a couple of substitute appearances since rejoining the Swans from West Ham in January, but he is now ready to start in attack alongside his brother Jordan.
Swansea have no new injury concerns and Lukasz Fabianski, Kyle Naughton and Alfie Mawson are all set to return for the Premier League clash after being rested in midweek.
Moyes admitted he has “one or two knocks” that are being assessed ahead of the trip to Wales, but there are no fresh injury concerns.
Manuel Lanzini came through an hour in the defeat by Liverpool last week and he is set to start once more, while Javier Hernandez could be recalled having been dropped at Anfield.
The Hammers are still without the suspended Arthur Masuaku, joining long-term injury absentees Pedro Obiang, Edimilson Fernandes and Andy Carroll in being unavailable but Patrice Evra could be handed his second start.
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After beating them 4-1 in the penultimate match at Upton Park in May 2016, Swansea have lost each of their last three Premier League meetings with West Ham United.
West Ham are unbeaten in four top-flight league visits to the Liberty Stadium since losing their first-such match there (0-3 in August 2012), drawing three before winning 4-1 in this exact fixture last season.
Swansea City lost their last Premier League game at Brighton (1-4), but haven’t lost back-to-back games in the competition since Paul Clement’s final two games in charge in December.
West Ham’s away games in the Premier League this season have seen 52 goals scored in total (F19 A33) – only Liverpool’s (56) have seen more.
Andre Ayew has scored two goals in the last four Premier League meetings between these sides; once for Swansea in May 2016 before switching to West Ham that summer and once for West Ham in this exact fixture last season.
