Swansea claim first clean sheet in nine league games on the way to victory
A look at Twitter this morning and you'd think Swansea fans had all been given their own personal moon on a stick. Tweets of an "I've got an extra spring in my step this morning" abound, and it shows how important last night's victory over Fulham was. If our run of poor league form had continued there was a real danger we could be dragged towards the relegation zone, but such is the serendipitous nature of the Premier League that a win over the Cottagers and three points later we're sitting in the top half of the table.
The build up to the game was slightly distracted given the arrivals of David N'Gog and Adam King from Bolton and Hearts respectively, and the continued rumours of Tom Ince signing on loan, but when I arrived at the Liberty the sense of expectation was palpable. Fulham have been dreadful this season, and Swansea fans knew it. I overheard the same conversation countless times - that we should be beating Fulham, and there was genuinely an air of confidence around the place, even if it was laced with the trepidation that any long-term Swansea fan will always have at the back of their mind.
Laudrup named what could be considered a first-choice team given injury problems, with Vorm continuing to miss out as he recovers from knee surgery. Elsewhere, De Guzman returned for Amat in midfield with Shelvey also coming in, while Pablo came in for Lamah with the rest of the team almost picking itself. It was obvious Laudrup wanted to get at Fulham but despite lots (and I mean lots) of huffing and puffing the first half was a rather frustrated affair. Jonjo provided the biggest threat, blasting one over the bar after a pull back from Pablo when well placed, but I'll call that a sighter as his next effort was beautifully hit, sadly crashing off the bar and away with the Fulham keeper Stekelenburg beaten.
The second half kicked off and despite expecting Fuham to come out freshly rallied, nothing of the sort happened. If anything, they came out even more deflated and the Swans turned the screw. It got to the point where I was discussing how we'd take a goal off an arse, a deflection, anything...when bang! Jonjo scores via a double deflection. Nothing more than we deserved I thought, despite not fashioning a whole load of clear cut chances up until that point.
Bony had his quietest game for a while, but to be fair he wasn't aided by a disjointed set of performances from Wayne Routledge and Pablo Hernandez. Hernandez being replaced by Dyer in the 58th minute proved the catalyst, his introduction sparking Swansea into life and three minutes later it was indeed the ex-Southampton man who provided the assist for Jonjo's goal. The Swans then had their best spell of the match, with De Guzman going close from 25 yards out. Striding on to a through ball, he hit a lovely shot left-footed and it took a good stop from the Fulham keeper to stop it heading into the top corner.
It must be noted that throughout, we suffered from an almost complete inability to deal with Fulham at set pieces and crosses. Brede Hangeland is always a monster in the air, but when you pair him with another 6'6" defender (Dan Burn), the situation becomes nigh-on ridiculous. Watching Ash wrestle with either or both of them was very interesting, and occasionally amusing - Ash is a big guy but he was dwarfed by the Fulham defenders, and the best chance they had fell to Hangeland in the first half. Somehow, he was completely free in front of the Swansea goal and his bullet header rocketed just over the bar with Gerry nowhere to be seen. A massive let-off, and we had to endure many more tetchy moments with the ball in the air before the game was won.
That being said, despite all the real/made up off-field issues of late I thought Chico was excellent overall, and probably by MOTM. He even passed it square a couple of times where traditionally he'd continue a surge upfield! He's learning. Another performer who had one of his best games for a while was Jonathan De Guzman, whose delivery was massively improved. At least three or four well-hit corners, as well as his assist and aforementioned shot, meant his end product was a lot better than of late, and hopefully it spells an upturn in form for the Dutch international.
As mentioned though, the goal provided a boost for the Swans and preceded the best spell of the match. Dyer provided pace - he's so, so good as an impact player against tiring legs. The second, and killer, goal came from a De Guzman free-kick, with Chico's flicked header being deflected by Berbatov into the Fulham net. Two deflections, but nobody cared - the Swans were winning a home game and for the first time in what seemed like a long time it felt almost comfortable. The rest of the game was played out not unlike a chess match where one player knows he's already lost. Meulensteen sent on Darren Bent, while Amat replaced Shelvey and Pozuelo came on late in the day for Pozuelo, but in truth the game was as good as won as soon as the second goal went in.
A friend told me after the game that any time Fulham have been drawing 0-0 at half time, they've failed to score in the second half, and I can now see why. Still, you can only play what's put in front of you and the win was thoroughly deserved. Equally pleasing was the clean sheet, and with West Ham likely to put up a lot more of a fight it's the ideal way to begin preparation for Saturday.