The Swansea Way's London Correspondent Andrew McGlashan on the season thus far
With almost a third of the season in the books, I thought it would be useful to have a mini review of our performance to date and what our expectations can be for the remainder of the season. To kick this off, I thought a little summary of this season’s highs and lows so far would be just the ticket:
Highs
- Wins against United (at Old Trafford – again!), Arsenal and Everton (finally!)
- Monk winning Manager of the Month
- THAT free kick from Siggy against Arsenal followed by THAT celebration from Gomis
- Having the second best defensive record in the Premier League
- Gylfi Sigurdsson – enough said
- We have a team spirit again!
- 5th in the table
Lows
- An incredible amount of terrible decisions (Moses penalty, Fernandez and Rangel red cards and that Alcaraz “save” to name only a few)
- Conceding late against Newcastle when three points seemed in the bag
- Losing to Southampton having battered them before the Bony red card
- Bowing out to Liverpool in the League Cup when another trip to Wembley seemed possible
As you can see the highs are outnumbering the lows and I had far more highlights I could have included. Therefore, upon review, I think the Jack Army can be very pleased with the season so far.
So what are our expectations now for Monk’s Merry Men? Well pre-season I wrote an article that pretty boldly predicted we finish 8th this season. I think it’s fair to say I took a little bit of stick for this and the majority of comments I received were along the lines of “don’t be stupid, I’ll bite your hand off for 12th position again”. Now I can see where people were coming from as it was Monk’s first full season, we’d had quite a bit of squad rotation and it is the Premier League we are playing in after all.
However, we are now four months on and I am going to stick to my guns - although I must admit I did not see Southampton having the start they have had (who did?!). Everton, Liverpool and Tottenham currently sit below us but I’m not sure it is a guarantee that all three of them will overtake us - European football is clearly taking its toll on these sides, as it did with us last season having to play mid-week across various parts of Europe. In particular, Spurs are looking very poor and you have to wonder what Ben and Vorm are thinking at this point in time as neither of them are playing in the league.
Elsewhere, West Ham, Stoke and Newcastle are in good form but I just believe we have a better team than them. I say this because I don’t think these teams, along with the rest of the bottom half of the table:
- have the firepower that we do in Bony, Gomis and Siggy;
- possess the pace to unlock defences that we do with Dyer, Routledge and Montero (just ask Callum Chambers about the latter – I mean seriously, he mugged him right off);
- can retain possession like we can once we have Britton back playing with Ki (oh Leon how we love you); or
- are as good defensively.
Out of these four points I want to quickly highlight our defence this season. We have conceded only 11 goals in the league, four or which came against Chelsea at the Bridge. That means we have conceded 7 goals in the 10 other league games we have played. That is incredible. Ash and Fernandez are forming quite the partnership and Fabianski has been as good as we all hoped he might be [and considering Ash has already had three different partners at centre-back this season it makes it even more remarkable - Ed]. In particular, Fabianski's ability to claim crosses has been a difference maker and something which we unfortunately were not used to with the smaller Vorm in between the sticks.
As the season goes on I can only see our defence getting better as they continue to get used to playing with each other. Of course luck with injuries will be key here, especially given our lack of depth at full back - that back four looks very different if Rangel or Taylor were to get injured. Further, I think we can expect more goals from Bony, who is still yet to hit the heights of the second half of last season, and Gomis who has now registered his first league goal. I’m also excited to see how Montero progresses as he’s been very up and down. If he can find some consistency, and the back of the net a few times, then we could have a very special winger on our hands.
Taking all of this into account, my ever optimistic self thinks we can reasonably expect a top ten position at least, which would still be yet another successful season. Combine this with a good run in the FA Cup (although don’t expect a home draw for us as usual) and we’ll all be as happy as that chap Larry from Skewen going into the summer. A summer which may well be spent looking at prices of travelling to France for Euro 2016 – c’mon Wales!!
Hopefully after reading this you are excited about the rest of the season as I am - although having Man City away on Saturday is a test of my optimism and we have lost all three of our previous games following an international break. However, a Man City team without Kompany and Silva are a different beast so I’m going for a score draw and the sound of Hymns and Arias filling the Etihad at full time.
Finally, as with any review, the all-important grade. I’m going for an A and a request for "more of the same please, Garry!"
Thanks to Andrew as ever for his latest piece - give him a follow on Twitter @AJMcGlashan. I'd have to agree with his assessment for our season thus far, and that it warrants an "A" grade! If you had to grade the Swans so far, what would you give them?