The Swans are now 8th in the Premier League after a 3-0 demolition of Fulham at Craven Cottage<\/p>\n
Report – Express.co.uk<\/p>\n
GYLFI SIGURDSSON once again starred for Swansea as the Welsh side extended their winning run in the Barclays Premier League to three matches at Fulham today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Buoyed by back-to-back wins over Wigan and title-chasing Manchester City, the visitors secured another three points in west London to propel them up to eighth.<\/p>\n
Swansea looked dominant throughout at Craven Cottage, with Sigurdsson scoring a goal in each half.<\/p>\n
The on-loan Hoffenheim midfielder broke the deadlock with a first-half header and set the Swans on course for victory in the 66th minute with his fourth goal in three games.<\/p>\n
Fulham came into the match unbeaten in six home games in all competitions, but looked second best throughout and Joe Allen wrapped up a convincing victory in the 77th minute.<\/p>\n
Clint Dempsey came closest for the Cottagers with a late shot that hit the bar, although Swansea held out to record a 12th clean sheet.<\/p>\n
Mahamadou Diarra was handed his first Fulham start for today’s game, while Bryan Ruiz was also drafted in.<\/p>\n
Danny Murphy and Damien Duff dropped to the bench as a result, while Swansea made one enforced change to the starting line-up.<\/p>\n
Ashley Williams saw his run of 169 consecutive appearances brought to an end by a virus and was replaced in central defence by Garry Monk.<\/p>\n
The match was built up as one between two sides that play with an attack-minded philosophy and neither needed any encouragement to go forward.<\/p>\n
Having seen Danny Graham force goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer into action after just 30 seconds, Fulham were soon testing Swansea stopper Michel Vorm.<\/p>\n
First the Holland international expertly tipped over a goalbound Dempsey effort, before Moussa Dembele opened his body up to force Vorm into a low save.<\/p>\n
Neither side, though, were managing to stamp their authority on the opening exchanges as chances came at both ends.<\/p>\n
Scott Sinclair saw an effort blocked after an uncharacteristic mistake by captain Brede Hangeland, before left-back John Arne Riise fired over from the edge of the box as Fulham ventured forward.<\/p>\n
There was a real sense of frustration by the Thames as both teams struggled to play their normal games, epitomised by a wayward Dempsey drive that was followed by a shrug of the shoulders.<\/p>\n
Swansea, though, were managing to show flashes of their exquisite passing game, which almost resulted in a 29th-minute opener when Sigurdsson saw a low effort creep inches wide.<\/p>\n
Ruiz tested Vorm with an audacious long-range effort when the hosts returned to the attack, although their defence was looking unusually haphazard.<\/p>\n
Schwarzer was one of the guilty parties and, after seeing a clearance charged down, had to be on his toes to thwart Sinclair.<\/p>\n
However, Fulham did not take heed of the warnings and found themselves a goal behind in the 36th minute.<\/p>\n
Wayne Routledge darted down the right flank and sent a cross to the back post, which was head back across goal by Sinclair for Sigurdsson to nod home.<\/p>\n
Dembele had an effort blocked as Fulham looked for an immediate response, although that was as close as they came as the first half came to a close.<\/p>\n
Chants of ‘Come on Fulham’ rang out around Craven Cottage at the start of the second period as the home faithful tried to spur their side on.<\/p>\n
The Whites, though, were struggling to find a way past Swansea’s resolute defence, leading boss Martin Jol to replace the ineffectual Ruiz with Duff after 54 minutes.<\/p>\n
The Ireland international brought a new attacking intent to the right flank and blazed over almost immediately, before then seeing a shot blocked.<\/p>\n
But it was Swansea that looked in control and few could argue when they doubled their advantage in the 66th minute.<\/p>\n
Sigurdsson was again the scorer as he slotted past Schwarzer after outfoxing the Fulham defence with a neat one-two with Routledge.<\/p>\n
Fulham brought on Kerim Frei and Murphy as a last throw of the dice, but it could not stem the Swansea tide.<\/p>\n
The Cottagers were made to pay for a misplaced Philippe Senderos pass in the 77th minute as the ball was worked to Allen, who went past the Switzerland international to fire home.<\/p>\n
The home support left in their droves after Swansea’s third, although the only moment of note they missed was a Dempsey shot that Vorm tipped on to the bar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Swans are now 8th in the Premier League after a 3-0 demolition of Fulham at Craven Cottage Report – Express.co.uk GYLFI SIGURDSSON once again starred for Swansea as the Welsh side extended their winning run in the Barclays Premier League to three matches at Fulham today. Buoyed by back-to-back wins over Wigan and title-chasing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}