The Jack Army travel north to the Black Country for their first away trip of the league season. Over two thousand tickets have been snapped up by the travelling jacks in a fixture that has brought some rewards in recent seasons.

Two doubles over the last two campaigns have ensured maximum points for Swansea City and last season we saw a thrilling 3-2 win for the Swans. New head coach Michael Duff has plenty to choose from with a fully fit strike force of Liam Cullen, Joel Piroe, Jerry Yates and Mykola Kukharevych ready to take to the field. New signings adding to those up front options. Josh Ginnelly who scored an absolute screamer on his season debut for the Swans on Tuesday night most certainly looks capable of adding to his tally this season. Josh Key has also settled in well with keeper Carl Rushworth. It could be too soon to see Charlie Patino the Arsenal midfielder, although the Swans did manage to register him in time for todays game. Plus he trained before his signature was secured with the Swans this week.

On Patino, Duff said yesterday, “He’s left-footed and can play in a couple of positions. He can play deep or a bit higher up, so that gives us that fluidity which we want and he can handle a football which is what we want.” Patino has clearly been a targeted signing as opposed to what seemed like more unstructured efforts last season taking what was available as opposed to what was needed.

The last five fixtures between these clubs has resulted in four Swansea wins and a draw. Before that many will recall a hatrick of headers by Salomón Rondón in a 3-1 win in 2016, and the 5-1 Baggies win back in 2019. There’s something quite notable from those fixtures from last season. Out of the six goals scored only one player remains in the Swansea City squad. Olivier Ntcham, Matt Sorinola, Michael Obafemi and Luke Cundle are no longer with the Swans leaving just Joel Piroe as the only goalscoring survivor from last season.

New loan signing Carl Rushworth is incredibly impressed with the Swans facilities and the players at the clubs disposal, "We've got the players to do it. ( promotion ) I know I haven't been here long but I've seen the quality. The facilities as well, everything is in our favour to go and perform this season and get promotion. The gaffer wants us to play with freedom. He is really keen on us playing with purpose, to attack and create goal-scoring opportunities." Big words, and it’s away trips like todays to the Hawthorns that have to be overcome to make those words stick.

West Bromwich Albion have a few injury concerns but have Josh Maja their signing from Bordeaux available. Jeremy Sarmiento Is also available but both have not had full pre season’s so manager Carlos Corberán may use them, albeit sparingly. He is urging caution, "We need to be patient with them, because it’s not about how many minutes we would like to play them, it’s about how many minutes they can play, to perform and to keep playing in the next games, too. That’s why we need to follow the medical instructions to make sure we don’t break these limits. At the same time it’s not only a medical decision, we know that when a player is out of rhythm they can’t perform well until they’re playing more minutes."

Grady Diangana Is out and Corberán is well aware of the Swans abilities from last season, "We will try to use all of our strengths and impact on their weaknesses to make us as competitive as we can be, what they do is not up to us, it’s not something we can control. We always want to win the football games, but wanting to win is only a desire. To make it happen we need to control the games in all the aspects we can, to have more control, and that’s always my focus. They’re going to be competitive, the only difference between us last season was goal difference, so we know that we’re going against a club that we know have a good team, a good coach and will be a nice challenge to face."

West Bromwich Albion v Swansea City kicks off at 3pm today in the EFL Championship. Full updates, team news and match report today. Follow the thoughts of the Jack Army on our football forum.

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Photograph licensed from Reuters

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