Three league wins on the bounce. Two league defeats on the bounce. The Swans will walk out at Sunderland this afternoon looking not to complete the symmetry to the opening statement and move themselves back into a Top 4 place in the league.

Last week's home defeat against Southampton was the only real disappointment of the season to date. Losing to Chelsea the week before was disappointing but not unexpected - last week we had at least a point in the bag if not three had it not been for a moment of madness from Wilfried Bony that cost us dearly.

Bony will be back today and looking to make amends and that can only be a good thing for our point of view if he believes that he is out to prove something. And good news for us can only be bad news for Sunderland defenders on this occasion. It has been no goals for Wilf this time around and he will surely break that duck soon and no better time than today as far as we are concerned.

The midweek win over Everton will have given us a massive boost and not least just because we have finally buried that hoodoo of never beating them. Brendan Rodgers always used to talk about not losing three in a row and I am sure that is a mentality that Garry has learned from in management so no doubt he was telling his players that ahead of Tuesday's game. Today he will be looking to make sure that we don't hit that three league defeat barrier and he knows that a win this week and next week will see us head into the next international break still in a very lofty position in the league.

We of course won at Sunderland on our last visit - the last day of last season - so we can take great heart from that and we can still take heart from the fact that we have won 6 of our last 9 games in the league which is still exceptional form whichever way you look at it.

It is now over a year since we kept a clean sheet away from home - the last time was Crystal Palace on 22 September last year. There is of course no requirement to keep clean sheets in the game but it certainly makes winning games alot easier. It is a run that now stretches back 24 games - could we stop that extending to be 25?

The Swans will again find themselves backed by a strong away following which has become the norm these days and that will act as a spur for us I am sure and we can hope that it is the final spur we need to bring three points back to Swansea.

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