Sunday 23 December 2012

Swansea City 1 - 1 Man United: A Winter Warmer

"Glory, glory Swansea City!"

Okay, not quite 'glory' in the traditional sense, but a victory of sorts for Swansea, who have now taken points from all the "big" teams in the Premier League. A 1-1 draw against Man United see the Swans celebrate the festive period 11th in the table.

I'll keep this short as you'll all want to be over-indulging in festive cocktails and/or mince pies.

Swansea started very brightly today and we saw some impressive fluid football from the men in white in the first ten minutes. However the confidence seemed to vanish as soon as Patrice Evra scored from his head on 15 minutes. A soft goal, and another conceded from a set piece. Leon Britton was ultimately to blame as he moved from his position on the far post, but it shouldn't have reached him in the first place. Swansea do need to improve on set-piece defence, but we'll leave that for now.

Thankfully heads only dropped for about ten minutes, when we saw a wonderful pass from Routledge through to de Guzman in a great onside position, whose rebounded shot fell for Michu (who else) to tap in. A deserved equaliser and a goal that sees Michu crowned the current top goal scorer in the Premier League with 13 goals.

The second half is where it all kicked off. Really good, exciting, frantic football. United seemed a lot more likely to nick the second goal, with a few slaps of the cross bar and forcing a few good saves, but Swansea held on well and created a few chances themselves.

We saw a not-so-seasonal scuffle between Ashley Williams and Robin van Persie, after Williams kicked the ball against the head of a floored van Persie (accidental or not is still undecided, depending on who you support). I can sympathise with van Persie mainly because... well, it must have hurt. But that's football. Alex Ferguson claimed afterwards that the incident could have killed Van Persie - that's a little extreme. No, that's very extreme. I've had many balls to the face (not a euphemism) when playing football and I've never died. It was not attempted murder - relax Ashley, no jail for you.

Thankfully no-one was killed and the fight added some extra heat to a cold afternoon in South Wales.

Agustien won man of the match - well done Kemy, you deserved it. Dwight Tiendalli also made himself known today - a definite competitor for a first-team spot even when Rangel/Taylor come back from injury. He made a good go of attacking and placed some great balls into the box (even if they weren't met by anyone).

It was nice to see Michel Vorm back in action. It may be difficult for Gerhard Tremmel to accept, as he has been superb in Vorm's absence, but Vorm showed why he is first choice on a couple of occasions today.

For Swansea to claim a point again the most recognised team in the world is another testament of how far the team have come, and another thing to tick off the list of success.

Today's festive frenzy of football was the perfect build up to Christmas and a point was a justified gift to the team and the fans.

Happy Christmas!



1 comment:

  1. UTD fell apart after the first goal, it was a well deserved draw as far as im concerned.

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