Report & Analysis Of

Swansea City vs Arsenal

By Joel Ramsay

Down in the heart of Catalonia Xavi, Iniesta and Messi paint pretty footballing triangles each week that sweep sides away with a style of football dominated by ball retention and high pressing, that s made the Camp Nou a fortress. Go north just shy of two thousand kilometres and on Sunday you could see that style replicated by Swansea City s very own tika taka experts at the equally stylish, if not as feared Liberty City stadium. Now I m not citing Leon Britton or Joe Allen for next year s Ballon D or, but the way the two miniature midfielder s tip toed and passed their team to a thrilling win was outstanding. The banner that hangs proudest at the Liberty reads Total Football with the face of highly regarded manager Brendan Rogers imprinted on it. And that banner has never had more significance than on the day of Swansea s biggest premier league scalp yet. We must remember there were two sides competing in this football match and inside five minutes the visitors were in front after RVP scored a typically worked Arsenal goal. Aaron Ramsey, in what was probably the highlight of his return to his homeland, threaded a ball into Alex Song whose first time touch to Arshavin left the Russian facing goal in a promising position. He slipped in Van Persie who did the rest with a delayed finish past Vorm for his twenty-second goal of the season. Any thoughts of the floodgates opening for Arsenal were immediately dispelled with the next ten minutes of football. Swansea woke up and started to take the game to Arsenal. Nathan Dyer began sizing up Miquel on the right wing and must have been licking his lips with anticipation at what damage he could do. And it was Dyer himself who won the penalty that brought Swansea s equaliser. Agustien brilliantly anticipated intercepted an Arsenal pass just inside his oppositions half. A typical example of the high pressing trait vital in the total football philosophy. His header found Allen who linked up well with Sinclair and the winger found himself clear down the left. Sinclair then picked out Dyer just inside Arsenal s eighteen yard box and twisted and turned until a tangle of legs with Ramsey resulted in a penalty. After microscopic analysis by various pundits in various state of the art studios, Michael Oliver, the leagues youngest ref was proved wrong. But he has two seconds maximum in which to make his decision and it did look like a foul. Sinclair scored and Swansea had a deserved leveller. Almost straight from the restart Ramsey tried to atone for his error as Spurs loanee Steven Caulker cleared his shot from a narrow angle off the line. After that scare, Swansea then superbly displayed a dazzling example of ball retention. Always trying to form triangles and rarely taking more than two or three touches. Trusting one another to receive the ball under pressure with the faith they could pop it off to a white shirt, with Allen and Britton the

conductors of their passing merry go round. However Swansea s stubbornness to play tidy football all the time got them into trouble when Ashley Williams was caught way out of his centre half position. And in a system where the full backs are encouraged to push forward, a gaping hole was left. Britton and Allen did their best to get their marauding captain out of hot water but lost out, and Van Persie should have benefited. The striker was drawn to the space left by Williams and was again found by Arshavin after Benayoun started the move. But Vorm stood up well to save as Van Persie was looking for him to commit. Swansea s possession then continued and the stats became remarkable. The premier league new kids on the block had 63% of the ball against the same divisions keep ball kings, incredible. Arsenal mirrored their attacking start to the first half in the second. Walcott was played in down the right but his finish was lashed over and frustratingly poor. As the beginnings of the half progressed long shots from Dyer and Allen really gave the locals belief a home goal was imminent. As did the next astonishing stat. Swansea had restricted Arsenal to just 6% of second half action in their final third. And this was achieved by more high pressure and constant harassment of Arsenal players when they were briefly in possession. Eventually the pressure told. Ramsey had received the ball deep in Arsenal territory, tried to turn, but guess who was breathing down his neck? Wales s team mate Joe Allen of course. If this was off the football pitch Ramsey would be within his rights to take a restraining order out on Allen! But this was far from illegal, just great tactics. He never let the welsh captain settle. Always nearby and forcing him to receive the ball further and further from Vorm s goal and closer to Szczesny s. When Allen had pipped Ramsey he fed Dyer who had found similar space to Van Persie in the first half with Miquel bombing forward in anticipation of the counter attack Allen had ended. And upon receiving the ball he simply took aim and fired a rifle past Szczesny from the edge of the box that really put the swans amongst the pigeons. It was obvious who Wenger would turn to when trying to restore parity. Rosicky joined Henry in replacing Arshavin and Benayoun. But neither had a leading role in Arsenal s second. Djourou brought the ball out of defence and punished Swansea for letting their pressing game momentarily slip, with a weighted twenty yard through ball that Walcott flew on to at Concorde pace and then calmly lifted a shot over Vorm. A finish that made you wonder if the great pretender to Henry s old number fourteen jersey actually finishes better when time is against him and he has to make a snap decision. That aside Arsenal had done well to pull level and just over twenty minutes left would have been plotting on how they were going to turn one point into three. What a difference sixteen seconds can make, because that was all it took for Swansea to incredibly restore their advantage. Koscielny, who spent most of his time shuffling right and left to put out fires started by team mates either side of him, should have been more vocal to his rookie left back and kept Miquel in line with the rest of Arsenal s patchy defence. But he didn t and Swansea were clinical. Half time sub Sigurdsson played Graham into the customary space left by Miquel and a hesitant Szczesny had a mix up with Kolscielny. Not as tragic but just as

costly as the one in the Carling Cup final. Graham seized his chance by wrapping his foot around a first time shot and guided it into the inside netting. Arsenal s final chance came when a Van Persie corner dropped four yards from goal at the feet of Per Mertesacker. The German swung a right leg at it and skewed it a couple of yards wide before then proceeding to embarrassingly appeal for a corner which Oliver had none of. Another capitulation from Arsenal would have left the travelling gooners and the legions watching at home furious once again. And their managers comments post match wouldn t of filled them with too much glee either. Wenger just about praised Swansea for their stylish and deserved win but also branded Nathan Dyer a diver and congratulated him on winning a penalty that he deemed non-existent . Robert Pires, Portsmouth, pot kettle and black comes to mind. Wenger will deep down know the game wasn t decided on that decision alone and like Blackpool and Hull before them Swansea are experiencing a great start to top flight life. But tangerine and tiger s fans will tell you it s hard to maintain such a good start. Though Brendan Rogers is an extremely intelligent tactician and many will be surprised if Allen, Britton, Dyer and Co don t successfully pass their way to a second consecutive premier league campaign and possibly beyond.

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