So, another weekend down, and the Swans are still in search of a first win since turning Newcastle over in the wake of our Capital Cup win (which, given Newcastle's run of form since, is now looking less impressive - although I thought Newcastle played well at the Liberty). Michael Laudrup was at his "jovially defiant" best after the match, insisting (rightly so) that the Swans have tended to let themselves down for portions of games as opposed to the entire 90 minutes, and while that's true it's not much consolation when it costs you the game anyway.
Michael Laudrup “This season will not get any easier. We still have the top two teams to play, a Wigan side who need to win, and the two Manchester sides. Man City will be no different to here, just that we play at home, but in this spell we’ve not had a very poor game since the Cup.
"We’ve had moments, yes, where we’ve not played well. But even here, you can’t say we’d played poorly after 60 minutes. We just had those crazy five minutes. It’s about what we can improve, especially in the last third.”
When the lineups were announced it did originally fill me with some confidence, given that I thought it was the XI which gave us the best chance of a result, and there were long periods in the first half where, sloppy final pass aside, the Swans were moving the ball around nicely. The standout chance of the first half was probably where Routledge managed to free himself of his man before bending in a delicious cross which Michu was only inches away from connecting with. In truth though, Routledge didn't have one of his better days in a Swansea shirt.
A look at some stats tells us that 40% of Chelsea's attacks came down the Swans' left hand side, where Routledge and Davies were tasked with repelling them. While the potency of Chelsea's forays down the right flank was no doubt aided by Mark Clattenburg's refusal to punish Chelsea players for smashing into Ben Davies all game (how hard is Davies proving to be? I'm liking him more and more...), Routledge didn't look comfortable defending at pace on the left-hand side and Chelsea did seem to target him after a while. I am a big fan of Routledge, however he can have had few complaints about being replaced by Nathan Dyer in the 66th minute.
The Swans struggled to keep the ball away from their own goal area for the entire game. Chelsea pressed high and hard, and simply wanted it more than the Swans. Have a look at this graphic below - the ball spent over twice as much time in the Swansea third as it did in Chelsea's:
Things started to go badly for the Swans following the introduction of Frank Lampard for the injury-stricken Ramires. At first I remember thinking "Well, Ramires always seems to give the Swans grief so maybe it's a good thing", however with Lampard so close to the Chelsea all-time scoring record his arrival was always going to cause problems. Lampard displayed more desire during his time on the pitch than, possibly, the other 20-odd players put together, and it's remarkable that after winning the ball from De Guzman the Swans' defence backed off him for 30 yards and invited him to have a pop from just outside the box. Thankfully, it wasn't his best effort and Vorm managed to tip it away for a corner, which saw Gary Cahill then go close after losing his man; his header drifting just over the bar.
Chelsea didn't have long to wait though, and Lampard was again the architect. In the 43rd minute Chelsea dealt with a high ball, and broke forward - a couple of neat passes in the midfield resulted in Lampard slipping the ball past the onrushing Ben Davies, and Oscar buried a finish across goal into the bottom corner. Possibly a little keen from the young left-back, but no-one had closed Lampard down so there was little else he could do. 1-0 at the break then. Or so you'd think...
Little less than three minutes had passed when some good footwork from Mata saw him trick his way into the box, and in front of Leon Britton. The little Swansea midfielder did, granted, put his hands on Mata at one point, but the Spaniard went down after seemingly tripping over his own feet. I've watched it numerous times and I don't see much contact between Britton and Mata - maybe I'm wrong but it seems a very soft penalty, given by a referee who seemed keen to placate Chelsea for the entire match. Luiz got away with "clotheslineing" Davies, before Azpilacueta only saw yellow for a challenge which could easily have seen red, also on Davies. That the Swans left-back didn't retallilate, play-act or ask the referee to get the cards out is testament to his character.
The second half saw good chances for both sides. Some nice footwork from Ki saw him play in Rangel, whose shot was deflected wide by Cech, while at the other end Ba, Mata and Lampard all went close. The Swans day was summed up late on. De Guzman broke through, and found himself (along with Michu) two on one with a Chelsea defender. Running towards the right of the area which Michu to his left, he tried a fancy little backheel roll, which was well behind the Spaniard and saw Chelsea collect the ball easily. Must do better.
A player who did play a little better was Pablo. It seemed he's got a little of his confidence back, but it was still a far from flawless performance. Stand out performers for me were hard to choose, with the only names springing to mind those of Chico, Ki & Davies. Vorm had a solid game too, producing one excellent save from Ba midway through the second half, down low to his right.
One thing is for sure, Man City are unlikely to prove any less of a challenge, home game or not. The Swans really need to pick up some points if they are to arrest this slump in form, as there is a danger a lack of confidence could be carried into next season. No player enjoys losing games, and you want your club's changing rooms to contain the proverbial "winning atmosphere" as much as possible.
One thing which does confuse me though is the insistence on giving Shechter game time. Rory Donnelly has been banging goals in for the U21's, and while he's still likely to be spectacularly raw surely at this point (and in the situation we were in yesterday in particular) we could have given him 15 minutes instead of a loan striker who Swans fans will unanimously agree has been far from a success during his time in SA1. As a friend succinctly put it: "All he's done during his time at the Swans is pick up a League Cup winners medal".
Laudrup doesn't seem overly vexed, but the continuing lack of cutting edge is now a cause for concern. It is possible, though, that Laudrup isn't unduly worried because he's got a "rabbit out of a hat" signing at centre-forward lined up. That'd be nice eh?
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