Swansea can throw early spanner into the works for Man Utd

Swansea started like a rocket ship under Michael Laudrup last season and they can cause the champions troubles on the opening day at the Liberty Stadium.

QPR were on the receiving end of a 5-0 pasting at Loftus Road on the first day of the last Premier League season, a result that Swansea then followed up by stuffing West Ham 3-0 at the Liberty Stadium, just to prove it wasn’t a fluke.

Some 12 months on and champions Manchester United will be their guests for this curtain-raiser and while it would be foolish to propose they will pummel David Moyes’ side, there is plenty of evidence to suggest they can at least achieve a result.

Taking Ladbrokes up on the draw at 5/2 looks a tempting bet, while the 3/1 on a home win is even juicier still and punters should give it genuine consideration. After all, this fixture produced a very close league encounter last season when the score finished 1-1 in Wales and in the return fixture it was only an 87th-minute goal from the highly unlikely source of United central defender Rio Ferdinand which proved the difference.

It’s also worth noting that this was the only one of their four Premier League meetings that breached the 2.5 goals line, making the evens price on Under 2.5 goals stand out.

Swansea have reason to be buoyant having already kicked off their season with an emphatic 4-0 home win over Swedish champions Malmo, helping them on the way through to the next round of Europa League qualifying.

New signing Wilfried Bony, freshly arrived from Vitesse Arnhem this summer, made the perfect competitive debut in that home leg, bagging a brace, while last season’s scoring sensation Michu also weighed in a with a goal.

Along with former Liverpool midfielder Jonjo Shelvey, Bony has added extra ammunition to Laudrup’s starting line-up and his linking up with Michu could be crucial to Swansea’s success this season.

United have tended to start a little creakily in their opening away fixtures in recent seasons too, having lost two of their last four in the top-flight, while winning just once.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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