...what can we take from yesterday's performance?
Ok, so I think we can justifiably feel robbed of the two points taken from us by referee Robert Madley, however I've stated on numerous occasions I don't particularly like talking about refereeing decisions. Instead, let's have a look at the performances of the Swansea players. I haven't done it in this format before, but it seems quite natural so let's give it a go.
GK - Gerhard Tremmel - Had little to do. Stoke had three shots on target - including the penalty - but he was given little chance. If you were feeling harsh you could say he might have got something on the first goal, but that would be very, very picky. Otherwise, solid as expected.
RB - Angel Rangel - Quiet and isolated in the first half, buoyed by the arrival of Dyer in the second. You could see he was visibly frustrated at the lack of width in front of him, and he remonstrated with teammates on numerous occasions. After the break though, he linked well with Dyer and the extra width created benefited the team massively.
LB - Ben Davies - One of Ben's quieter games, but he was generally solid. Perhaps (along with Chico) soft for the first Stoke goal, but after the break he showed more adventure and played a couple of nice dinked through balls, as well as committing his man more often.
CB - Chico Flores - Guilty of attempting a cute flick away from Jon Walters which saw him go on to score, and later booked for theatrics. Not impressed, if I'm honest. The East Stand applauding his yellow card says it all really - man up.
CB - Ashley Williams - Off the field when Stoke opened the scoring due to injury, he came back on and led from the back as usual. Strode out of defence well, and generally looked tidy and competent.
MF - Leon Britton - What can you say about Leon that isn't said week in week out? Industrious, neat, willing and so much more. If all our central midfielders played like Leon, we'd never lose the ball.
MF - Jonathan De Guzman - It says something that the biggest contribution I thought he made was leaving the field to make way for Shelvey. He did provide a tasty cross for Bony's opener, in fairness, but I thought in open play he was poor, and displayed a lack of fight and commitment I've been noticing for a while.
MF - Alex Pozuelo - Supposedly playing "in the hole" for the first time in his first league start, he found himself pushed out to the right wing for large swathes of the first 45 minutes, due to Routledge and Lamah adopting free roles. Still though, he managed to produce our best effort of the first half, and Stoke looked unable to control him until he tired late on.
LW - Roland Lamah - Unlucky to be substituted at half time in as much as I thought he was only as bad as various others based on the 1st half performance, but hard to argue with the difference the sub mate. Looked lively and showed he has a good first touch, but ineffective.
RW - Wayne Routledge - Suitably industrious, but wandered into the space Bony should have been occupying far too often in the 1st half. Far better once Dyer joined in the second half - both started playing like real wingers and gave the side width, which afforded the central midfielders more room to operate in.
CF - Wilfried Bony - Feed the bull, and he will score. Fluffed a glorious first half opportunity but made up for it with two proper centre forward's goals in the second half - a header and a neat left footed finish made more impressive by the way he bought himself a yard of space directly before Shelvey squared it to him. He's now got three in his last two games, and fans will hope he can continue this form after the international break. Hopefully some fans who were audibly getting on his back will now shut up.
SUBS
Dyer - Very influential in terms of changing the game. As mentioned, stretched the game and seemed to want to take his man on at every opportunity, something he's not been doing of late. More of this please, Nath. Got the equaliser and boy did he enjoy it.
Jonjo Shelvey - Another good sub from Laudrup. Shelvey looked great when he came on, and grabbed the assist for what we assumed had to have been the winner. Looked focused - he seems to be getting a touch more composed and hopefully by the end of the season we'll be witnessing much calmer displays from the one-cap England midfielder.