Soldado penalty consigns Swans to defeat in North London
Another match, another predictable outcome. The Swans travelled to London fully aware of the size of the task at hand, and with both teams buoyed by impressive showings in the Europa League the stage was set for an interesting showdown between two teams full of confidence in their attacking game.
When the lineup's came out, and it was revealed Bony would be on the bench, I was heartened somewhat. Not that I've got anything against the Ivorian - simply that I've said numerous times that I think the Swans are at their best when they play with three dedicated central midfielders (ie. not playing Michu at CAM), but I should have added a caveat to that statement - that Leon Britton (or someone who can mimic him) needs to be one of those midfielders. Without him, or someone performing his role (Ki?) we struggle to control the midfield and that was evidenced against Manchester United, and more recently Spurs.
I thought Jose Canas played really well, and positionally he was markedly improved from the United game, but - and this is no fault of his own - without Leon at the heart of our midfield we didn't seem to get the ball down and play it. Instead, Canas was accompanied by Jonathan De Guzman and Jonjo Shelvey, and despite the calibre of the players in the "J Triumvirate" being, arguably, as high as anywhere else in the squad we struggled to impose our game.
Within two minutes of kickoff Spurs gave us a sign of things to come by forcing a corner. They'd go on to win eight in the match, and although they never really threatened from set-pieces it kept the Swans hemmed in to their own penalty area quite effectively. The first effort of note came from Paulinho, as he drifted towards the box, dummied his man and produced a left footed effort which Vorm got down easily to save. Still 0-0, but Spurs were building a head of steam.
Swansea almost managed to produce a goal with their first meaningful effort, though. Hernandez managed to break past a couple of defenders but was half-tackled, and that saw the ball sit up for ex-Spur Wayne Routledge, who managed to get a snapshot on target first time. Lloris got himself in the way, but the ball fell to Michu, who will have been very glad to see the offside flag raised as his right-footed effort drifted agonisingly wide.
The next incident of note involved that man Paulinho again. Townsend's cross from the right was deflected by Ashley Williams onto his own crossbar/post, and bounced out to the central midfielder. His first time shot was absolutely smashed toward goal but a combination of Ash Williams and Vorm managed to keep the ball out. Great work on the line.
The referee had by now shown he wasn't really up to the task, but the best was yet to come. First Shelvey was booked harshly after appearing to get to the ball first, before De Guzman went down the other end and produced a shot which should have seen us earn a corner. Unsurprisingly, the ref wasn't paying attention, and Swansea's woes were heightened when Michu was harshly booked a minute or so later.
That served as a warm-up to the main event though. Neil Swarbrick enraged the home fans by denying them a penalty just before half time, when Andros Townsend was checked by Jonjo Shelvey when the midfielder was trying to help out Ben Davies. It was definitely in the area, but a free kick was given out by the corner flag. Temporary respite which saw us go in at half time level.
The second half started in much the same way as the first half had ended. At half time I'd found a stat stating Spurs had managed 30 shots up until that point in two games, and scored once, but it wasn't long before they took the lead.
First, Dembele had a shot blocked which led to another Spurs corner, before Andros Townsend went close when he smashed one just over Vorm's bar. Before Spurs inevitably took the lead though, the Swans had time to waste their best opportunity of the match. Pablo played Michu through so he only had one defender to beat, but he was forced slightly wide out to the right hand side. He still managed to produce a cheeky pass inside to De Guzman though, who was (when he received the pass) in at least three yards of space in every direction. Somehow, he contrived to stand still until he was tackled though, and Spurs cleared the danger.
Given Spurs went almost straight down the other end and earned a penalty, it's hard not to feel like that moment of indecision cost us dearly. As for the penalty itself? Soft doesn't do it justice. Andros Townsend and Jonjo Shelvey were again the players involved, but this time the winger did a number on the midfielder. Bursting forward, he took a big touch past (and away from) the ex-Charlton & Liverpool midfielder, but for some reason decided to run into Shelvey's legs, despite the Swansea man attempting to get out of the way. If that's a penalty every time we might as well give up on tackling, but the referee was sufficiently conned and Soldado did the rest, sending Vorm the wrong way.
Townsend has come out angrily on Twitter saying it wasn't a dive, but you would wouldn't you? He also can't spell "blatant".
So, 1-0 Spurs, and with the game having gone the Londoner's way up until this point it was difficult to see the game unfolding any other way form here on in. Pozuelo came on for Routledge immediately after the goal, and looked lively straight away - beating players for fun and earning Soldado a yellow card when the striker had attempted to track his fellow Spaniard back towards his own goal, but in truth the Swans had few opportunities despite Wilfried Bony entering the field of play with 20 minutes left. One chance of note was almost taken superbly by Chico Flores, who arrived at the back post to meet a deep free-kick and produced an outstanding volley which, sadly, went straight at Hugo Lloris. Behind for a corner, which Spurs subsequently cleared.
The last 20 minutes were definitely better for the Swans, but they struggled to create anything meaningful. Bony looked good when he came on and I don't remember him losing the ball once, while Jose Canas continued to impress. The midfielder is looking like more and more of a bargain and hopefully he can go from strength to strength.
After a rather limp last few minutes the referee drew time on the matchup, and Spurs claimed a well-deserved three points which sees them maintain their 100% start to the season, while the Swans are still looking for their first points. Still - we've played Manchester United & Spurs, so I'm not overly concerned. As the excellent We Are Premier League point out, a point against West Brom would mean we've matched last year's results in the three matches we've played so far so there's no reason to be worried just yet.
Onwards and upwards then. We've got the second leg of the Petrolul game on Thursday and with the team 5-1 up we can afford to rest key players, which will allow us to put out a strong team for next weekend's match with West Brom.
First up though is the trip to Romania. Exotic...