Our weekly look back at the last four fixtures versus our upcoming opponents
This week we've got Chelsea away, and Nathan Lewis returns to help remind us what went on the last few times these two teams went up against each other
So, joint top of the league, with a Manager of the Month and a film coming out. It's pretty good to be a Swans fan right now, but can we keep the momentum going tomorrow at Stamford Bridge? Let’s have a little look at the #FlashbackFour* for this week.
*I’m going to allow myself to sneak in a cheeky five games instead of four, since one of them was a cup tie with two legs. Lovely. [Alliteration would have made it "Flashback Five" so you could have got away with that Nath! - Ed].
January 9th 2013
Capital One Cup Semi-Final First Leg
Chelsea 0-2 Swansea
Depending on which paper you read the following morning, this result was either a great triumph by the mighty Swans, or a smash-and-grab victory snatched following two defensive mistakes by Branislav Ivanovic. There is no doubting that the Swans were helped hugely by the Serb’s vital lapses of concentration, but that is not to say we didn’t fully deserve our 2-0 victory. Whereas fortune so often goes completely against the Swans, lady luck smiled on us, and we came away from Stamford Bridge with our only win of this #flashbackfour. I still remember going crazy after each goal, and screaming into the face of my Chelsea-supporting friend. One of the many magical moments of our Capital One Cup run.
January 23rd 2013
Capital One Cup Semi-Final Second Leg
Swansea 0-0 Chelsea
“Charlie Morgan: King of All Ball Boys”. A game of decent football, with both teams creating chances was overshadowed by one little ball-boy-related incident. After his teammate played a hopeful pass that drifted out for a goal-kick, Eden Hazard went to retrieve the ball from a Swansea ball boy. A series of events occurred, in which Hazard eventually attempted to kick the ball from underneath Charlie Morgan – now lying on the floor. The referee deliberated, and eventually sent Hazard off. Little is remembered of the rest of the game, but at the end of the day, who cared? We were going to Wembley!!
April 28th 2013
Premiership
Chelsea 2-0 Swansea
A ‘crazy five minutes’ was the undoing of the Swans at Stamford Bridge, as was seemingly the case for a large spell of Laudrup’s time as Swansea manager. A solid enough performance was undone by the defence switching off, and then conceding a penalty. Oscar slotted home the first from a Frank Lampard toe-poke, before Lampard himself stepped up to convert a penalty in the 45th Leon Britton clumsily brought down Mata from behind. There wasn’t much else to shout about for the Swans in the second-half, although this match did see Neil Taylor come off the bench in the 80th minute to make his first appearance since breaking his ankle against Sunderland.
December 6th 2013
Premiership
Chelsea 1-0 Swansea
Samuel Eto’o, renowned international goal scorer was Chelsea’s striker on this occasion. His opposite number? Alvaro “Poor man’s Itay Schechter” Vazquez. Our performance can be summed up in one word: shaky. With Gerhard Tremmel looking less than confident, and Chelsea’s exciting attacking midfielders creating chance after chance, Mourinho’s men were never in danger of losing on Boxing Day. With Wilfried Bony (£12million striker) on the bench, the Swans lacked an attacking focus, and were extremely lucky to only concede a single goal. Particularly fresh in my memory is Tremmel trying to knock it past Eto’o before scrambling to retrieve it from the feet of the onrushing Oscar.
April 13th 2014
Premiership
Swansea 0-1 Chelsea
Chico, no! An encouraging start from the Swans on a sunny Sunday afternoon was dampened by an all too regular fit of silliness from the ponytailed Spaniard. We had been playing some decent football, with Bony and Dyer giving Petr Cech some work, but our momentum was stripped when Chico received his second booking following some Mourinho-Terry intimidation of the officials. Eventually Demba Ba attacked on the counter, and some poor defending from Ash and a weak right hand from Michel Vorm meant we came away with nothing after a very encouraging performance.
Overall record last four (five) games:
Played: 5
Wins: 1
Draws: 1
Losses: 3
Goals Scored: 2
Goals Conceded: 4
Not the worst record in the world, especially against a team as strong as Chelsea. We were unlucky to not take any points from our home meeting last season, and can lay the blame at Chico’s door for that one. Our lack of a decent second striker stopped us from being a threat on Boxing Day, but with Bafetimbi Gomis arriving this summer, it’s possible that even without Wilfried Bony, we could provide a decent attacking threat tomorrow at Stamford Bridge. The key will be preventing Chelsea’s impressive midfield from controlling the game, and stopping the supply to Diego Costa (or Loic Remy, if Costa doesn’t make it!).
I can’t realistically see us keeping up our 100% record, but then I also didn’t see us beating Van Gaal’s United on the opening day. I predicted a 2-1 loss that time, and we won 2-1. Maybe the reverse psychology will work again... I’m going for 1-0 Chelsea.
Thanks as usual to Nathan for the Flashback Four...or five. You can follow him on Twitter @NathDavidLewis