Aston Villa-Swansea City Preview

Both Swansea City and Aston Villa go into their Boxing Day clash at the Liberty Stadium on the back of strong results.

Garry Monk's Swansea (7-4-6) went into Saturday's meeting with Hull City with just one win in five, but a Ki Sung-Yeung strike in the first half was enough to earn the Swans a victory that kept them firmly in the top half of the table.

Three games in quick succession in the next week will give Monk's side the chance to establish themselves as challengers for the European places, but the Swansea manager was keen not to look beyond Villa's visit in his pre-match press conference.

"These are all tough games," Monk said. "Aston Villa will be dangerous and we have to be aware of that. We have our own game plan and we'll see what happens on the day. I'm expecting a very good contest but we're confident going into the game to get the three points.

"If we give the kind of performance that we have been doing at home we should be firing on all cylinders. But in terms of how we are progressing, we're in a good moment both as a club and as a team. We will embrace that and just try to keep improving."

Paul Lambert's Aston Villa (5-5-7) impressed in their 1-1 draw with Manchester United over the weekend and were particularly encouraged by the performance of striker Christian Benteke, who scored the Villans' goal and caused no end of problems for United's defence.

That point against the Red Devils gave Villa 10 in their last seven league matches (2-4-1), and Lambert is keen for his squad to keep the momentum going through the next week.

"It's about getting as many points as you can," Lambert said. "We have a lot of games coming up. There are so many matches coming up in this next little period. We will go and try and pick up as many points as we can.

"Next up is Swansea and it will be a tough game. They are a good side, especially down at their place. It's a game I am looking forward to because it's always a good atmosphere there and a good pitch to play football. We go down there with a lot of confidence. But we also know it's a difficult game. Garry Monk has done great there. I am sure he would agree that the foundations had been laid there before he went in. But you still have to go in there and manage players and cope with everything that gets thrown at you. He's done really well."

Lambert will be without the services of Ashley Westwood (knee), Joe Cole (hamstring), Philippe Senderos (calf), Nathan Baker (knee) and Libor Kozak (broken leg) at Swansea, while the Swans will hold late fitness tests for the key midfield trio Leon Britton, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jefferson Montero.

Swansea proved far too good for Villa in this fixture last season, with goals by centre-forward Wilfried Bony bookending a 4-1 victory. The spoils were shared in a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture.