MICHAEL Laudrup has urged his Swansea City side to clear a psychological hurdle when they kick off 2013 against Aston Villa this afternoon.
Swansea welcome struggling Villa to the Liberty hoping to come through their four festive fixtures unbeaten.
And with a brutal month of fixtures ahead, Laudrup wants his team to start the new year by reaching the latest milestone in what has been an impressive season to date.
"It's a key game. We are at home and it's a possibility for us to go past 30 points," said the Swansea manager.
"We know there will be difficult games this month — we have three cup games to think about and after this we have three of the next four league games away from home.
"That's very difficult, especially if you have two semi-finals on top of that.
"For me it's a key league game because psychologically to pass 30 points would be very important.
"To have two consecutive wins and to come through this programme unbeaten, maybe with eight points from 12 — that would be something."
Swansea are tenth in the Premier League with 28 points after following up draws against Manchester United and Reading with a hard-fought win at Fulham on Saturday.
After Villa they host Arsenal in the FA Cup, then comes the Capital One Cup semi-final first leg at Chelsea followed by a tricky trip to Everton.
Swansea then face Stoke at the Liberty prior to the Chelsea second leg, and they finish the month with away games at West Ham and Sunderland.
It is another taxing set of fixtures for Laudrup's men — hence the Dane wants three points today.
Villa head for SA1 in dreadful form. Paul Lambert's men were unbeaten in six games after their rousing 3-1 win at Liverpool on December 15.
But they have endured an awful Christmas, losing 8-0 at Chelsea and then at home to Tottenham (4-0) and Wigan (3-0).
Yet Laudrup has rejected the idea that Swansea may be in for a relatively easy afternoon because of their opponents' recent struggles.
"We all know it's not like that," he stressed.
"I expect a very tough game because I expect Villa to give whatever they have. They will have spirit, attitude and fight from the first to the last minute.
"They have had three big losses and they don't want to go into the bottom three."
Swansea were bullied out of it when they lost at Villa back in September, and Laudrup anticipates another exacting contest this time around.
He added: "They will try to make it a physical game I think. I am not saying they will try to commit a lot of fouls, that's not what I mean.
"But I think they will try to be physical because they know we like to move the ball around.
"They will try to cut off our play because they won't want to run all the time in their fourth game in ten days.
"For us it's so important to try to move the ball. The movements and the pace of the ball are so important for us.
"Then obviously the first goal is important. If we score that then we may be able to find some more space."
