Planet Swans ArchivesTwo goals from Fernando Llorente and one from Gylfi Sigurdsson tells just a small part of the story of a pulsating second half in front of the BT Sport cameras that had just about everything but highlighted just what a difference Paul Clement has made to this team.
Pre-Clement there is no doubt at all that we would have folded dramatically when Liverpool fought back from two goals down but it was noticeable that as we lined up again for the kick off at that point the players were ensuring that heads did not drop and they were rewarded by a rare piece of luck in the end in a season full of the ball running against us.
It is so obvious to see the difference that Clement has made and if we can continue on the level of performance that we showed today then we shouldn’t have too many problems in pulling us away from the bottom three in the division which is key at the moment. We have become disciplined in the way that we hold our shape and tactically we are more aware of what is happening around us and there is little doubt today that Clement out manoeuvred anything that Jurgen Klopp had in his locker.
Even in the first half you would argue that the closest anyone came to a goal was when Tom Carroll’s deflected pass across goal came back off the post with Fabianski not really called upon to make any real save of note although Liverpool did look dangerous coming forward.
On the subject of Carroll it was pleasing to see him and the other new signing Martin Olsson making such an immediate impact into the team and their involvement in our second goal in particular highlighted some of the reasons why Paul Clement was happy to add them to his squad.
It is difficult to know where to start to describe a second half that had so much more than just five goals which started when Llorente hammered the ball home after Fernandez won a great header from a Gylfi corner. If that first goal was enough to send the travelling Jacks wild just four minutes later they could celebrate the Swans doubling their lead.
Olsson and Carroll combined on the left and Carroll’s cross was met with perfection by a bullet header from Llorente that hit the back of the net and the Swans were in dreamland.
We have all been Swans fans long enough though to know that a two goal lead is not a cause for relaxation in our minds and so it proved just three minutes later when Firmo met a cross of Liverpool’s with his own precision header to half the deficit. Anfield was lifted and the home fans found their voice for the first real time in the game as Liverpool pushed forward in search of an equaliser.
And it was an equaliser that they got with just over twenty minutes to go when Firmino scored his second goal of the game with a cool finish that gave Fabianski no chance in the Swans goal.
At this point I suspect that most of the travelling support feared the worst given our track record this season but this was a team with a bit of fight about it and as we attacked again a deflection off a Liverpool defender fell to Sigurdsson who finished with the coolness of the ice man that he is to give the Swans the lead once again.
It would be wrong to say that we saw out the match comfortably with some close shaves in our area in the last 15 minutes but we did manage to hold out and secure just a fifth win of the season and arguably one of the most important ones in our history.
Today was without a doubt three bonus points on our points tally and now we have to take all the positives from this game and build on them going forward.
Fantastic stuff
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