Premier League preview: Swansea v Norwich

Swansea received a boost in the build-up to their home clash with Norwich City after manager Brendan Rodgers signed a new deal.

The 39-year-old is now committed to Swansea until the end of the 2014/15 season after an impressive campaign in the English Premier League so far.

Swansea’s passing brand of football has been particularly pleasing and they sit in the top half of the table after 24 matches, a tremendous achievement for a newly promoted club.

“I’m delighted to sign the new deal,” Rodgers said.

“I’ve been very pleased with my work over the last 19 months. I can only promise that over the next three and a half years I will continue to fight for the club and its people to help us become a sustainable Premier League club.”

“I couldn’t have dreamt of things going much better when I came into the club. You are normally judged objectively over time, but I was aware that I needed to make an impact in a much shorter period.”

Swansea have lost just one of their past nine Premier League fixtures – that run including wins coming against Arsenal and Aston Villa.

They came from behind to win 2-1 at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday with in-form striker Danny Graham – who has scored four in his last six matches – getting the winner.

Sitting one place and two points higher than Swansea on the table is Norwich City, who were also promoted from the Championship last season.

Both sides have been terrific additions to the Premier League, not only in terms of results but also style.

Similarly to Swansea, Norwich have lost just two of their past 10 league matches with impressive home form the key to their success.

They beat Bolton Wanderers 2-0 in their last fixture and each week their injury list is slimming, in positive news for Norwich fans.

Swansea are without Ferrie Bodde (knee) and Andrea Orlandi (hamstring), and with relatively clean bills of health and positive feeling about, it is easy to see why both sides have done well in their first season back in the top-flight.

Norwich have not won at Swansea in six attempts, with their last victory coming back in March 1962 when they cruised to a 3-0 win.

And although they won the reverse fixture 3-1 at Carrow Road in October, Swansea will still go into the match as favourites thanks to their superb home record – they have lost just once at home, to Manchester United.