Planet Swans ArchivesIt sounds like a similar story to one we have seen so often but I am not sure it was this afternoon as we had by far the better of the play and were desperately unlucky not to convert it to a win especially when you consider an Andre Ayew header that came back off the post and a world class save from Pantillimon in the Sunderland goal from a Gomis header.
Those two chances could easily have gone in on another day and definitely with the Ayew header it would have been 2-0 at that stage and I don’t think there would have been any way back for Sunderland from that point in time.
A look at the match stats at the end of the game tells you what kind of game this was and whilst Sunderland showed more fight today than they have done in recent weeks then it would have been such a different story had the result gone the way the match dictated that it should have.
As you would have anticipated today the Swans went into the game with an unchanged side from the one that started last week against Newcastle with Ki not even travelling to the North East for the game. Sunderland of course went into the game on the back of two pretty poor defeats and rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table and under massive pressure.
Chances in the first half were far more limited than chances in the second but the Swans were the better team although it could have been different had Danny Graham’s overhead kick not taken a deflection off Jack Cork which took the sting out of it.
Montero was as dangerous as he has been in the first two games of the season and when it looked like the first half was going to end goalless there was a typical Swansea goal in stoppage time. A quick break saw Ayew found Naughton, his through ball found Gomis and the striker drove a shot across the keeper to give us the lead with his third goal in as many games this season.
That was clearly not what the home side needed and would have led to a nervous 15 minutes at half time as the start of the second half suggested. The Swans were well on top as the second period got underway and as well as Ayew’s header there were attempts from Sigurdsson, Shelvey and Gomis as well and it looked for all the world as if there was a second goal coming.
There was but sadly it came against the run of play as Lens found Defoe and he finished in pretty much the same way that Gomis had into the same goal in the first half. The scores were level and not really what Sunderland deserved it to be.
The game was completely open at this point and the Swans continued to dominate with Pantillimon on hand to save from Shelvey, Sigurdsson and Montero as well as the world class one from Gomis whilst at the other end although Sunderland will tell you they had chances, Fabianski will tell you that he had no saves to make which tells you the story of the game.
It was a chance missed today but certainly not one to get downhearted about, another top quality performance and with some luck we would have won and be sat at the top of the league right now.
Onto Manchester United at the Liberty next week where both sides will put their unbeaten records on the line.
And of course the small matter of York in the Capital One Cup midweek in the middle too.
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