Arsenal's superior finishing is enough to see off the Swans
It says something about yesterday that until Ben Davies scored in the 82nd minute, the most excited I'd been was when I found out the Riverside Lounge have Doombar on tap. Hopefully that means I'll never have to pay money for the "lager" they call Carling ever again.
Yesterday we lined up without Ashley Williams, Angel Rangel & Leon Britton. Anyone who's familiar with the Swans knows that those three players have been integral in keeping the Swans playing "the Swansea way" for the last few seasons, and something I've been banging on about of late is that without Leon Britton we struggle to control the midfield. Yesterday that wasn't the case as we retained the ball at ease, but without Williams and Rangel we looked exposed at the back. Normally, Chico's erratic lunges forward are counter-balanced by Ashley Williams' reading of the game, and the continuity Rangel provides. Yesterday, time and again Arsenal drifted forward and it was all too easy for them to evade the first challenge, before creating something dangerous.
As mentioned, ball retention wasn't a problem. The Swans enjoyed the lion's share of possession, but simply couldn't do anything with it. Some of Laudrup's team selection's of late could start to be questioned - Ashley Williams missed a second match in a row after playing through the pain barrier against Crystal Palace while Wilfried Bony had to make do with a place on the bench after playing 90 minutes against Birmingham in the League Cup midweek, and until the Ivorian's introduction yesterday the Swans looked pretty toothless.
The first half was essentially a sparring match. Both sides threatened to create but in truth it was lots of huffing and puffing with little in the way of blowing the house down. The best chance of the half came late on when Giroud was played through, but he dragged his shot across Vorm and out for a goal-kick, and so it went into half time at 0-0.
Neither side made changes at half-time, but I detected a decrease in confidence from the Swansea team after the break. Laudrup has described the four-minute period where we conceded two goals as a "lapse in concentration" and while that's true by the time we came out of our slumber we were two goals down, so for all the pomp and verve we played with after that unless it resulted in a point (or three) it's all rather redundant.
The big difference was the manner in which both teams broke forward. When Swansea broke - normally through Nathan Dyer or Wayne Routledge - it seemed they'd break to a point, before pulling up and waiting for support, which was normally slow to arrive. Arsenal, on the other hand, showed the power of breaking in numbers, and when they bombed forward it was with a sense of intent which almost always saw them produce an effort on goal. Again, the lack of Ashley Williams was palpable as they found space in front of our back four with ease, and the Wales skipper must surely have watched on in frustration as the man he's swapped the Welsh captaincy with slipped youngster Gnabry in to finish with aplomb.
To make matters worse, Ramsey (booed throughout) then went and made it two-nil. Given how little we'd created until that point, it was almost certainly game over. Michu was cutting an increasingly frustrated figure, and Dwight Tiendalli in particular was wasteful when well placed - by my count he shanked at least three crosses when we had players in support in the area, and at one point Michu could be seen ranting to no-one in particular for a good few seconds. Frustrated indeed.
For his part, the tall Spanish striker did play well and was always offering himself as an outlet - it's just a shame the rest of the team didn't play with the same sense of urgency and industry he displayed. Two players who did impress however, and have done so all season, were Ben Davies and Jose Canas. Back in February I put together a profile on Canas when we were rumoured to be interested in him (Link) and I called him a hairy Leon Britton. I think now, with all due respect to Leon (of whom I'm a massive fan) it's a disservice to Canas, who's showing he really is an outstanding footballer. Mesut Ozil has enjoyed an outstanding season so far but the Spaniard marked the £43million German out of the game.
Ben Davies, meanwhile, managed to get himself on the scoresheet again. He's showing a growing knack of being in the right place at the right time, and he was also the only Swansea player who seemed to want to run beyond the last man. Late on, he linked excellently with Bony before managing to improvise a finish past Szczęsny, and he really is looking some player. Neil Taylor isn't getting a look in at the moment, and for good reason. Time and again Davies has played out of his skin, and his ability to not dive in to a tackle should be applauded, especially when he finds himself up against players like Jack Wilshire. He stands his man up so well, and it's very, very rare someone gets in behind him.
The introduction of Bony did see the Swans find an extra gear. As mentioned, he got the assist for Davies' goal and also managed to fashion a couple of half chances for himself - one in particular the Arsenal defence did well to block after he'd turned his man and seemed set to pull the trigger. Given how clinical he's been so far, from that range you'd have banked on him finding the target.
A note on Bony - why do some fans seem intent on him being useless? Get a grip is it? We've spent a massive amount of money on him and berating him from the stands when he'd just attempted to do something we hadn't really managed to achieve up until that point - have a shot - is going to help no-one. You simply cannot argue with how many goals he's scored already, and it's pretty obvious the guy is a very good player. Give him a chance, and he will surprise you. Just because he doesn't chase shadows for 90 minutes doesn't mean he's not worthy of our patience.
Overall, yesterday showed the difference between a top side and one aspiring to that level. Ben Davies and Jose Canas & Michu played with no fear, and the rest of the squad could learn a thing or two from those boys. We shouldn't bow our heads to anyone, and need to believe in our ability to out-pass and out-think even the top sides - after all, we've enjoyed results against almost all the big teams now and if we're to succeed to any degree in Europe we'll most certainly need to show more creativity in front of goal than we did yesterday.
That, and let's hope Ashley Williams is back sooner, rather than later.
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