Planet Swans ArchivesThe Swans were undone too easily in the first half as Andy Carroll and Nolan combined twice to score the two goals and in reality we made it far too easy for the home side and never really tested the West Ham keeper at any real stage during the game.
If the win midweek against Fulham was designed to give us a boost and increase confidence today will have drained it back down again as we never got into a game and looked devoid of ideas to get through West Ham even more so when they went down to ten men.
You could easily argue that they were unlucky as well to drop to ten men too as Andy Carroll was sent off for a swinging arm that almost knocked Chico’s pony tail out of position but gave Howard Webb the opportunity to show the striker the red card and put the Swans out of their misery given that Carroll was pretty much running the game at that point in time and was in the middle of everything that West Ham were producing.
There was pretty much nothing in the air that Carroll was being beaten to as was demonstrated by both goals in the first half. The first saw Carroll knock down a header that Nolan volleyed home whilst the second came almost on the stroke of half time when Carroll was found from a corner and his header back across the six yard box saw a static Swansea defence watching as Nolan steered a header into the corner of the net.
The game was effectively over at that point – half shouts for a penalty fell on deaf ears and rightly so with the defender taking the ball ahead of Bony but that was about all that was on offer in the first half for the Swans as West Ham took more and more control of a side that certainly wasn’t up on confidence as had been predicted after the midweek performance.
The game was screaming out for half time changes but they never came as the Swans lined up with the same team that looked so inept in the first half but a game changing kind of moment could have made the difference when Carroll was sent off. A challenge with Chico saw him swing his arm as he came back down and Chico – as has been the case before – made the most of the minimal contact and Howard Webb decided that the intent was there and sent off the striker who was probably heading towards a man of the match performance at that point.
The Swans responded by throwing on Pozuelo for Amat but West Ham – who managed not to conceded from 39 Chelsea attempts midweek – were holding firm and were now pretty much all their nine outfield players behind the ball. And we know that when that happens the Swans always struggle to break down teams and so it proved as the game wore on.
Pablo was introduced as was David N’gog for his Swans debut but it made little difference to the pattern of play as the Swans toiled and pushed forwards but were lacking an end product completely as West Ham kept them out with some ease and some very good blocks.
A disappointing performance on a day when it called for people to stand up and be counted to deal with the physical and direct presence of West Ham something that we failed to do quite spectacularly and the result at the end reflected the game totally and we got what we deserved. Nothing.
