Middlesbrough vs Swansea City Predictions

• Middlesbrough won four of their last six home Championship games last season
• Swansea lost seven of their last 12 away league games in 2024-25
• Boro have won five of the last six meetings and each of the last five head-to-head clashes on Teesside

Edwards has plenty to do

Middlesbrough and Swansea were separated by one place and three points in last season’s Championship standings, but neither look like making major improvements on their mid-table position going into the new campaign.

Boro axed Michael Carrick and brought in ex-Luton boss Rob Edwards in the summer and pre-season has only underlined how much work he has on his hands to turn the team from a flaky footballing side with occasional flair into a durable candidate for promotion.

They drew four and lost two of the warm-up fixtures, finishing the friendly schedule with a 2-2 stalemate against Deportivo La Coruna. Some of Edwards’ players still look destined to move before the end of the summer transfer window, so they are far from the finished article.

Swansea were sloppy against Lorient

Swansea’s squad might be closer to the one that Alan Sheehan has at his disposal for the first of the campaign than their fans would like. The former interim and assistant boss won seven of his 13 games in charge last season and appears to be a safe and cost-effective choice to keep them up.

The Swans were beaten 3-1 by Ligue 1 Lorient in their final friendly, spurning some good chances to score further goals. They, like many of the teams likely to be fighting outside the top six this season, lack a goalscorer worthy of the name, having failed to match Wycombe’s demands for Richard Kone.

Ben Cabango, Zan Vipotnik, Filip Lissah and Ricardo Santos all missed that game and will be assessed ahead of the clash at the Riverside Stadium. If they defend as sloppily as they did against Lorient they are going to be in big trouble.