Stuttering Swans Draw Blank

Results elsewhere meant that the Swans moved into the top half of the table but it was an afternoon of few chances and one that showed how difficult we find it against sides that defend so deeply. For large parts of the afternoon, the visitors had all eleven men inside the final third as they held their line and made the Swans work hard for the few chances that we created.

A Chico Flores point blank header in the first half and a Wilfried Bony shot on the turn in the second half were the best chances of the game for the Swans whilst the Hammers were guilty of wasting some good chances in the first half as they seemed to have the best of the play.

The return of Pablo Hernandez in the second half at least seemed to give the Swans some creativity that was so sadly missing in the first half. 67% possession for the Swans probably paints a false picture of a game where the away side also had more chances although the Swans would see themselves as unlucky not to get a penalty in the closing stages of stoppage time for what looked like a handball in the West Ham area.

Ashley Williams returned for this game as well as Pablo and that added an extra piece of comfort to the Swans defence although it was Vorm who was the busiest keeper – saving twice from Downing whilst several good chances were inexplicably headed over. Had Andy Carroll been playing then the Swans may not have been so lucky.

Vorm indeed seemed sloppy all afternoon and almost scored an own goal when he misjudged what appeared to be a routine punch and it was only the alertness of Angel Rangel that saved him an own goal.

The first half though was a reasonably dull encounter and in truth the second got little better as West Ham seemed to settle early for the point and slowly defended deeper and deeper as the Swans probed for the goal that never really looked as if it was coming.

Bony – dropped to the bench for a start for Vazquez – had the best chance when his sharp shot on the turn was saved by Jaaskelainen and the rebound couldn’t be forced home by the Swans.

West Ham always looked a danger on the counter attack but they never really looked likely to change the scoreline which was set to be nil nil reasonably early on in the afternoon.

The Swans now have eleven points from nine games the same tally as they had this time last season from a much more difficult start to the season and now we can look forward to the South Wales derby next week against Cardiff.