FT: Swansea City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2 The Great Dane kills off the Swans with a last minute strike after Harry Kane gave us the lead in the first half. Kyle Walker made a much awaited start in the EPL after a long break due to injury. Tottenham travelled to the Liberty stadium with an excellent away record and an excellent head to head record with Swansea, having not lost a match to them in the EPL. We couldn’t have asked for a better start as Harry Kane leapt over the Swansea defence with a towering header from an Eriksen corner in the 4th minute of the game. The Swans gradually grew into the game trying to get the much evasive equalizer thanks to some brilliant saves from our Captain Hugo Lloris and defensive work of Ben Davies. We survived their attack and prevented Bony from scoring heading into the break with a 1-0 lead. Swansea started with where they left off in the first half, on the front foot. They pushed Spurs back with their attacks mainly coming from the wings, Routledge and Montero were causing a lot of problems with their pace and Bony’s physical threat was becoming more of a problem as the game grew on. And the Swans got their well deserved equalizer when Routledge was free down the right and played the ball into the center with Bony awaiting, Bony’s header ricocheted off a Spurs defender and fell back to him and he put the ball into the net making no mistake, Hugo couldn’t do anything about it. From then on it was all Swansea as they used the momentum well and built on it, growing more confident and searching for the winner. But Spurs were very resilient in their efforts to stop Swansea from scoring, a couple of important interceptions from Vertonghen and Fazio kept us in the game. Davies was having a well contested battle with Routledge as did Walker with Montero. Gary Monk brought on Jonjo Shelvey to give them more of an attacking threat from the middle and Pochettino responded in kind by bringing on Dembele for Soldado to even up the midfield battle. Roberto Soldado was having another unproductive game, as was Erik Lamela who came off for Nacer Chadli. Benji Stambouli came on for Ryan Mason to get the edge over the Swans in the midfield. Spurs had a good patch where they created some chances and looked to break on the counter with Benji Stambouli shielding the defence along with Bentaleb giving Dembele freedom to play in a more advanced role. Our effort soon paid off when a stray ball from Bartley fell to our midfielders and they released Eriksen who unleashed a shot from outside the area forcing Tremmel into a good save but the Swansea defence made an error when they gave the ball back to Ben Davies who took it with an excellent touch and put the ball into Eriksen’s feet who had found his way into the box, and the Great Dane turned his defender and let loose a shot through the defenders legs and into the bottom corner sending the supporters into ecstasy. It was more of a “Cometh the hour, Cometh the man” situation, something we have grown used to this season. It was all over for Swansea as their valiant attempts went in vain and Spurs stole the 3 points, keeping our unbeaten record against Swansea intact. The win takes us to 7th place just two points behind Arsenal and Soton. The Value of this victory is immense as Swansea are a strong side at home beating teams like Arsenal and Everton. Spurs continue their excellent away record. This win might cover up a lot of flaws in our game today and Pochettino has quite a bit of work to do but we are progressing as a unit game by game. Hugo Lloris, Faultless today. pulled of some excellent saves, good distribution. Jan Vertonghen was a little shaky in the first half and grew into the game and made some good tackles to deny Bony and Shelvey. Fazio was immense aerially and had a few shaky moments as well but made some great interceptions and kept his composure. Ben Davies, a MOTM worthy performance against his former club. A brilliant tackle to stop Bony in the first half and provided the match winning assist. Kyle Walker had a good game returning to the team after a long layoff, kept pace with Montero very well and made some good runs and provided us the width we require. Erik Lamela and Roberto Soldado were disappointing today and didn’t do much. Harry Kane was a livewire right from the start and kept running till the last minute where he put pressure on the defender and got himself a one on one chance but Tremmel was upto the task. Looks like an excellent fit in the EPL for us. Ryan Mason and Bentaleb had decent games, worked their socks off. Benji Stambouli and Dembele had lively cameos stabilizing the midfield and gave us good physical presence and drove forward well. Stambouli came on and completed all of his passes and made 4 interceptions in 21 minutes. Those are some excellent stats. Christian Eriksen, the Great Dane delivered once again. Set up kane with an excellent corner and was oozing class with his touches and movements, once he moved into a central role, took the ball well and tucked it in with a classy goal. Pochettino has a lot of positives and negatives to take from today, but he is growing as well. He now has a more clear idea about our team and would have noticed the faults. Next up is Newcastle in the COC quarter finals at the Lane! #KeepTheFaith #OnwardsAndUpwards #COYS -Varun
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 18:47:33 +0000
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