Tottenham Hotspur take on Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium on Wednesday evening looking to keep up the pressure on pacesetters Chelsea at the top of the Premier League.

Spurs were ready to pounce on a rare slip-up from their title rivals last time out and could reduce the deficit further in midweek, while Swansea simply need points on the board to ease their growing relegation fears.

Swansea City

It is fair to say that Paul Clement was thrown in at the deep end when being handed his first Premier League job, taking over a Swansea side that looked destined for the drop after finding themselves bottom of the pile at Christmas.

Clement made an instant impression, starting from his first game at the helm when overseeing a vital 2-1 win at fellow strugglers Crystal Palace in South London, before following that up with four more wins in the club's next seven outings to double their points tally.

At one point a climb into mid-table was a possibility, though successive defeats to Hull City and Bournemouth put paid to that, before Sunday's stalemate with Middlesbrough hammered home that there is still plenty of work left to do if Premier League status is to be retained.

The three-game winless run against the sides in and around the bottom three, combined with Leicester City, Hull and Crystal Palace all picking up big wins at the weekend, has left Swansea one point above the dotted line.

Even that bore draw with Boro last time out to halt the run of defeats was hardly seen as a positive by concerned staff and supporters, who watched their side fire a top-flight blank for the second game running - not since May 2013 have they gone longer without finding the net.

A lack of goals can hardly be blamed for the Swans' current demise, though, as they have conceded a whopping 63 goals this term - by far and away the worst tally in the division - and kept just five clean sheets in all.

To put that into some context, all seven previous sides to have shipped 63 or more at the 30-game mark have gone down, no doubt giving Clement plenty of cause for concern as he prepares to welcome a Spurs side certainly not afraid to put their opponents to the sword.

The Welsh outfit have also failed to win 10 of their 15 home league matches in 2016-17, though that record is a lot brighter now than just a couple of months back thanks to three wins and a draw in their last four - Arsenal being the only side to leave the Liberty Stadium with all three points since the turn of the year.

A pivotal moment in the season has now arrived for City, who hardly boast the finest of records in previous encounters with Spurs, and they quite simply must stop the rot and re-find their form of early 2017 if they are to stay above the dropzone.

Recent form in Premier League: WLWLLD

Tottenham Hotspur

Just when Chelsea's name was starting to be engraved into the trophy for the second time in three years, Crystal Palace produced one of the shock results of the season by leaving Stamford Bridge with maximum points for the second season running.

Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino has kept a calm head, pointing out that the Blues still have a more-than-healthy seven-point advantage at the top, but try telling those Tottenham fans to keep their excitement levels in check as they look to go one better than last term by maintaining the pressure throughout.

Lessons will no doubt be learned from 2015-16, when dropping off the pace in the closing weeks to allow Arsenal to usurp them into second place, and those expectant Lilywhites fans will know full well that their side have a big chance to increase the pressure on Chelsea further this week.

Shortly after Tottenham take on Swansea, the Blues welcome fellow heavyweights Manchester City to Stamford Bridge, and Spurs are again in action before their rivals at the weekend so could potentially cut the gap to just the single point.

That is the dream scenario, of course, but for now all focus has to be on picking up a fifth league win in succession, and a sixth in their last seven, having already endured what can at worst be described as a minor blip already this year.

Spurs dropped points to Sunderland at the end of January, while also taking one point from six against Liverpool and Man City, but since then they have been on fire and boast better form than title favourites Chelsea since the start of 2017.

Tottenham, who take on six sides in the bottom half of the division in their end-of-season run-in, are out in front when it comes to the best home record in the top flight but have not been quite so impressive on their travels.

Saturday's win at fortress Turf Moor went a long way to rectifying that, though - a first win away from North London since New Year's Day and a 14th clean sheet for good measure, ensuring that they remain one of the finest defensive sides in Europe's top divisions.

Recent form in Premier League: WLWWWW
Recent form (all competitions): WDWWWW

Team News

Swansea missed leading marksman Fernando Llorente in their flat goalless draw with Boro last time out, and the Spaniard - still a fitness doubt for Wednesday - has failed to find his top levels since hobbling off at Hull last month.

Should the 11-goal ace miss out on inclusion against Tottenham it could well be a case of sticking with Jordan Ayew through the middle, but Clement will surely tinker with the side elsewhere if that is the case - Jefferson Montero a strong candidate to feature out wide.

Angel Rangel, Nathan Dyer and Leon Britton are all sidelined, meanwhile, and Wayne Routledge is expected to miss out due to personal reasons, but former Spurs playmaker Gylfi Sigurdsson is fit and firing and is always a player to pay particular attention to.

In terms of the visitors, manager Pochettino has a decision to make over whether to go with four at the back or three, having alternated during the meeting with Burnley at the weekend.

Vincent Janssen was given a rare league start in that win at Turf Moor but again failed to impress, with the jet-lagged Son Heung-min a better option when coming off the bench and surely now the favourite to step in for Harry Kane up front.

Joining Kane and Harry Winks on the sidelines is Danny Rose, but the Lilywhites are well stocked in the full-back department and will start with former Swan Ben Davies in South Wales.

Swansea City possible starting lineup:
Fabianski; Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson; Fer, Cork, Carroll; Narsingh, Ayew, Sigurdsson

Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Lloris; Dier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen; Walker, Wanyama, Dembele, Davies; Alli, Eriksen; Son

Head To Head

Swansea have never managed to beat Tottenham in 11 previous attempts in the Premier League, drawing two and losing nine of those encounters.

Spurs have scored in all 11 of those matches and netted 25 in all, including five in the reverse fixture in December, averaging a total of 2.3 per game against the Swans.

In fact, the Lilywhites have a higher win rate over the Welsh outfit than any other team they have faced 10 times or more in the Premier League era.

We say: Swansea City 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham tend to enjoy themselves when facing Swansea, which will be the case once again in midweek if recent form is anything to go by. Swansea have slipped back down to 17th after a winless run of three against teams around them, while Tottenham have won six of their last seven and are good value to further close the gap on Chelsea at the top.