Swansea v West Ham Preview: Predictions, Lineups in First Real Promotion Test

Swansea City v West Ham United
EFL Championship
Swansea.com Stadium
Saturday 17 October 2026, 3pm BST

In many respects, West Ham United’s visit to Swansea City could be our first genuinely significant match of the Championship campaign. The game against Wolverhampton Wanderers carried some importance because both clubs had been relegated, but it arrived far too early for the division to have properly taken shape.

We are now approaching the quarter-way point of what West Ham hope will be a promotion season, and Swansea have established themselves as the Championship’s form team. Vítor Matos’ side have lost only once in ten league games, won their last four and sit four points clear of the Hammers.

A draw away to the league leaders would probably be acceptable, but West Ham must approach the match looking to win. Anything less ambitious would raise fair questions about why Nuno Espírito Santo has not yet navigated the division’s most expensive and talented squad into the automatic promotion places.

Lincoln Result Comes With A Large Asterisk

It is difficult to know how much confidence West Ham should take from their 6-0 victory at Lincoln City. The opposition were reduced to nine men during the first half and their team was largely made up of players who were competing in League One last season.

There were still several encouraging individual performances. Jarrod Bowen appears to be fully hitting his stride, while Konstantinos Mavropanos continues to suggest he will score plenty of goals at Championship level.

Tomáš Souček also did what he does best by proving extremely effective inside the opposition penalty area. His two goals ensured that West Ham’s victory eventually became emphatic, even if the final score disguised some serious problems during the opening 45 minutes.

That is why I cannot get completely carried away by the result. As enjoyable as six goals were, West Ham’s awful first-half performance cannot simply be ignored because Lincoln eventually collapsed.

Austbø Has Earned His Swansea Start

Edvin Austbø was the biggest positive to emerge from Wednesday night. The Norwegian looked a menace after coming off the bench, scoring a sensational goal and adding the urgency and attacking intent West Ham had previously lacked.

He has earned a place in the starting XI against Swansea. This should not be a case of automatically retaining the players who began a 6-0 victory when several of them were poor before half-time.

Austbø’s pace and directness could be particularly useful against a Swansea defence missing Cameron Burgess, Josh Key and the suspended Filip Lissah. As Claret & Hugh reported ahead of the game, the Championship leaders could be forced into using a makeshift right-back.

That presents West Ham with an obvious area to attack. Austbø should be given the opportunity to test whoever Swansea select on that side rather than being held back until the second half again.

Nuno Cannot Retain The Same Team

There is no way Nuno should retain the same starting XI, and not merely because West Ham face a quick turnaround following Wednesday night’s match. Some of the players who started at Lincoln simply did not perform well enough to deserve another selection.

Manor Solomon looked absolutely knackered and, worse than that, I thought he was useless. He could probably do with a rest, particularly ahead of a match likely to be far more intense and demanding than the second half against nine-man Lincoln.

I would also change Morato at left-back because he does not offer enough going forward. West Ham must show greater attacking ambition if we genuinely consider ourselves the best team in this division.

However, I do not expect Nuno to make that particular change. Morato appears to be his preferred choice on the left and will probably retain his place, with Kyle Walker-Peters returning on the opposite side.

Swansea Will Eventually Drop Away

Swansea deserve enormous credit for their start. They have won four consecutive matches and showed their resilience by scoring a last-minute winner at Millwall on Tuesday night.

However, I do not believe they will remain automatic-promotion rivals throughout the season. My suspicion is that they will eventually drop away from the top two but still secure a play-off place.

That does not particularly help West Ham on Saturday. Swansea are currently the strongest team in the division according to the league table, and their confidence will be sky-high following a run of results which has created a four-point advantage over the Hammers.

This is where the respective quality of the squads should become relevant. Nuno has more expensive and more talented players at his disposal, so West Ham cannot travel to Wales with a cautious mentality and behave as though a draw is the limit of our ambition.

A point would not be a disaster, but the approach must be to win.

Gonzo’s Predicted West Ham Team

Predicting Nuno’s team is extremely difficult, particularly after Wednesday’s strange match. My guess is that he will change the shape to a 4-2-3-1, bring Divine Mukasa back into the side and reward Austbø for his excellent performance from the bench.

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Gonzo’s Prediction

This is a difficult match to predict. Swansea are in excellent form and have demonstrated that they can continue finding ways to win, while West Ham remain capable of looking dreadful for long periods before suddenly overwhelming an opponent.

Saturday should give us a much clearer indication of West Ham’s true promotion level than the victory over nine-man Lincoln. Nuno has the stronger squad, but Swansea currently look like the more settled team.

I expect both sides to have spells of control and neither to do quite enough to win it.

Prediction: Swansea City 2-2 West Ham United