Swansea 0 - 0 Man City - Signs of progress...

Originally I didn't think I was going to be able to see this game live, but with a couple of hours left until kickoff I put out an SOS on Twitter which seemed like it would ultimately bear fruit. As it happened, a few minutes later I received a text from a friend about a ticket which had become available, so there I was, off to the game.

The last time we'd played Man City at the Liberty we'd already given a respectable account of ourselves before Luke Moore rose majestically to head home the only goal of the game, but with his name listed among the substitutes he'd have to wait for his chance to make an impact. Laudrup picked the three wingers in front of De Guzman and Britton, with Michu up top, and retained Ben Davies at left back despite the mounting pressure no doubt being applied by the presence of a fully Neil Taylor in the squad. Other than Dyer coming in for Ki it's as you were for the Swans, and I felt it was harsh on the South Korean as he was excellent against Chelsea.

The game started and instantly settled into a very..."continental" pace. As time wore on though, Swansea were definitely in the ascendancy. Pablo looked livelier than he has done for a while, and Dyer looked comfortable combining with Rangel down the right. This ultimately produced the first real chance of the game, with Dyer breaking past Clichy and producing a cutback for Pablo, who scooped his shot over the bar.

Some Swans pressure then saw a succession of corners, one of which was cleared high up in the air in the direction of the East Stand, and had Chico Flores chasing it under pressure from a City defender. What happened next would sum up the hirsute Spaniard's day; he produced an immaculate first touch with the ball dropping from high over his shoulder, and shielded the ball until he could play a simple pass back to a team-mate. Chico was outstanding throughout today (one or two stray passes aside, but let's not talk about them) and along with Ash they bullied Aguero throughout until he was replaced by Tevez late on.

The Swans continued to look the more likely to score and Routledge broke through after a neat interchange of passes but Samir Nasri had tracked back well and made a crucial intervention, before Dyer produced an excellent cross for Michu, whose side-footed volley drifted agonisingly past Joe Hart's right upright. Next came a great chance for Man City - Gareth Barry floated a diagonal ball over Ashley Williams which found Nasri with no-one but Vorm to beat, but thankfully he volleyed weakly straight at the Dutch stopper who held his effort easily.

Leon beats Sergio Aguero to the ball

Then came the biggest talking point. Another few neat passes saw Michu bursting in to the box and taking a quick touch away from Nastasic and onto his favoured left foot, but he was clattered by the Serbian who, from where I was sitting, appeared to kick Michu square in the chops. One for MOTD to sort out I feel, but it looked a clear penalty to me. There was still time for the more illustrious opponents to threaten, and Silva went close with only an awesome tackle by Williams, then a smart save by Vorm keeping the score at 0-0 as the half time whistle blew.

Yaya Toure was replaced by Edin Dzeko at the interval, who looked lively but in truth the first twenty minutes of the second half were very similar to the first twenty minutes of the first half, in that both teams huffed and puffed but neither threatened to do any damage to each other's houses. Another controversial refereeing decision saw Dzeko looking to go past Chico, who stuck out his left leg (imagine him doing his best one-legged lunge and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it looked like) and Dzeko ran straight over it. Mike Jones waved that away too, possibly in an effort to placate home fans who had grown to dislike the match officials as the game wore on.

Next came probably Swansea's best opportunity of the second half. Pablo had found some space on the edge of the area and unleashed a drive across Joe Hart's goal, but sadly it was too high and drifted over the bar. A few minutes later De Guzman had a go from a free-kick about 25 yards from goal after Nathan Dyer was fouled by Vincent Kompany, but it drifted even further over the bar, and to be honest I can't remember any significant chances for the Swans after that. Worryingly, Michu had to leave the field after seemingly tweaking his hamstring, so hopefully that's nothing too serious. Luke Moore came on for Michu, but with time running out it was always going to be a big ask for him to repeat last year's heroics.

Man City then spurned possibly the two best chances of the game. Some good work from Pablo Zabaleta saw him produce a cutback right from the byline, and it deflected off a Swans limb in a way which saw it sit up for Edin Dzeko perfectly, no more than five or six yards from goal and with the Swansea defence flat footed. He somehow contrived to hook a weak effort across goal and away for a goal kick, but the Swansea faithful barely had time to breathe after another City attack saw the ball deflect into the path of David Silva, but his smashed low finish again drifted to Vorm's right and away for another goal kick.

Pablo Hernandez battles with Pablo Zabaleta

That was the last chance of note in a game where, after twenty minutes, I thought it was quite clear Man City must have been told to sit off the Swans and let us have possession, and for a team which cost hundreds of millions of pounds I think that's pretty disgraceful. Man City should be looking to turn over a team like Swansea every week, and negative tactics like those displayed today are probably the reason that Manchester United have romped home this season, with City trailing in their wake. They did seem to pick up the pressing as the game wore on, but that was more the result of having to match the level of intensity displayed by the Swans as they looked for an opening goal.


I thought the Swans played better than they had for a while, and were unlucky not to score in the first half. The final ball seemed to always be slightly behind the man, but that's closer than it has been for a while so we'll take that. A 0-0 draw against last year's champions isn't a result to be sniffed at, and the Swans worked hard for their point. Leon was outstanding today, his performance summed up in the 86th minute when, with City breaking forward, he tore back at full sprint and nicked in to play the ball back to Michel Vorm. I thought the entire Swansea backline deserve mention too. Rangel got forward well and made a number of interceptions, and the more I see of Ben Davies the more I like him; at one point he ran straight into Edin Dzeko and the Bosnian striker, all 6'4" of him, ended up on his backside. Don't mess with Ben.

All in all, it was a solid defensive performance and a decent point. Up next is Wigan away this Tuesday evening, and if we play like we did today I'd say we're a pretty safe bet for at least a point. Massive respect to anybody making that journey...