Sky Sports EFL pundit David Prutton has suggested that Preston North End’s difficult start to the campaign will continue with another loss against Swansea City on Saturday.
The Lilywhites host Swansea at Deepdale hoping to build some momentum after a positive last two results with them beating Peterborough United 1-0 last time out in the league.
That was then followed up by a 4-2 win away at Morecambe in the League Cup in midweek.
Those two results have helped to take some of the pressure off Frankie McAvoy after Preston had lost all three of their opening league games against Hull City, Reading and Huddersfield Town.
Preston will need to start showing that they can pick up results on a more consistent basis in the Championship and they will need to start creating and taking more chances.
That comes after they have managed to score just three goals in their opening four league matches.
Swansea, meanwhile, head into the game on the back of their first win of the season in the Championship under Russell Martin.
That came with a narrow and hard-fought 1-0 victory away at Bristol City. It was a performance that showed the Swans still have the ability to grind out important results as they did often under Steve Cooper.
Martin will want his side to be much better with the ball than they were at Bristol City at times, and he needs to find the right way to win games by playing the way he wants them to.
The chance will be there for them to show that against Preston now they have that first win on the board.
Making his latest round of predictions for Sky Sports, Prutton suggested that Swansea would be able to edge out Preston in this game and make it back-to-back league wins with a 2-1 success.
The verdict
This is a very tough game to call and it is one that you could actually see going, either way, heading into the weekend.
Both teams have shown their flaws during the opening four matches in the Championship, but they also showed that they have the ability to grind out results when they need to in their last league match.
Swansea will look to dominate the ball at Deepdale and McAvoy will need to set his side up to try and press them high up and force some mistakes from them with high pressing.
The Swans have shown that they can make individual errors on the ball playing out from the back in their first four league games.
It will likely be a tight game as Prutton suggests with neither of the two sides having been prolific in front of goal in the opening weeks of the season.
However, it will be a massive three points for whoever can secure them and show signs that they are starting to build momentum.
Swansea’s quality might just give them the edge, but Preston will cause one or two problems for the Swans as well so you would not be shocked to see this end in a draw.