Eric Imhof takes a reflective look back at a weekend which saw an FA Cup exit, two red cards and a whole load of frustration
I would write "this is the winter of our discontent," but of course that's a misquote (of "thus the winter of our discontent is made spring by the Son of York,” or something similar), and besides, discontent is the wrong word to begin with. “Disappointment” would be more accurate, considering the huge individual and collective opportunities that have been simultaneously squandered in the most frustrating way imaginable.
Bartley, Gomis, and Carroll all lost chances to impress (with Bartley owing Carroll a pint or two), while the Swans lost a chance to survey a remaining FA-Cup field without City, Chelsea, and Southampton. With Europe out of reach, that limits Monk’s goals to finishing in the top ten and, in my view, winning rubber matches against Stoke and Liverpool, admittedly just to satisfy a self-righteousness and vindicate Monk’s Serpico approach to the game as a whole.
And speaking of self-righteousness, there have been more than a few asterisks this season, which only highlight the job Monk’s doing in his first year at the helm. In the case of Bartley, I’m of the opinion that yes, by the letter of the law, a red could be shown there, but the dozens of other similar instances that didn’t even produce a yellow card this season—let alone the instances of clear-cut reds the Swans’ opponents have avoided—further highlights the demonstrable inconsistency that more and more, it has to be said, seems to slant consistently against Monk’s side. Ask yourself if, in a million years, the Swans would ever get that call if the roles were reversed.
Actually, it’s worth mentioning that while the Swans now have eight red cards on the books, some of their opponents miraculously have none to speak of. It simply can’t be the case, if the refs are consistently following the letter of the law, that this statistic should exist, especially considering that many teams go in with a gameplan that revolves around monkeywrenching Swansea’s passing game; i.e. fouling at will. It’s also worth mentioning that Monk has successfully appealed two of those cards, meaning at least 25% of them were patently incorrect.
For all the talk of points lost from a winning position, Monk has arguably lost 10 points from red cards this season to go along with two cup exits. And that’s just counting if the Swans don’t pick up questionable reds; there are of course the equally important cases where other teams have avoided them (Costa, Yoshida, Alcaraz, Chamakh and Green come to mind, without doing any research). I don’t mean to make excuses, but the pattern at this point is unavoidable.
Onward, then, to the next three games without Siggy, in which I think Monk will be happy to finish with three points. The Swans are not going to beat Southampton, if I may be blunt, but a win at home against Sunderland is surely not only achievable but likely. That fast start must now look like a godsend to Monk, who can now do some more long-range planning with the knowledge that three or so wins will just about do it. Still, a top-ten finish should be the goal.
Thanks to Eric for his weekly contribution - follow him on Twiter @AustinJackArmy