Swansea Focus - Swans' unbeaten streak ends with Norwich defeat
After enjoying an unbeaten streak of seven games spanning from late-October, Swansea have been dealt their first home defeat since their 3-0 loss to Everton back in September.
Norwich went into Saturday’s clash at the Liberty Stadium fresh off the back of a 2-1 win against Sunderland, a victory that extended the Canaries’ unbeaten run to nine games. Their confidence with the ball stunned the hosts in the first-half, with the Swans staring down the barrell of a hefty 3-0 scoreline at the break.
A Michu and de Guzman double revived hopes of a Swansea comeback but a Snodgrass strike with quarter of an hour left to run buried the result out of the home side’s reach, despite Michu hitting back with just seconds of stoppage time left.
If anything can be left from Saturday’s 4-3 defeat to Norwich, is that Swansea’s excellence on the ball and speed on the attack may be effective when in possession but when they’re without the ball problems tend to arise.
The visitors displayed an effective long ball game that for the most part obliterated the Swansea defence. Passing combinations were easily dealt with by Ashley Williams and Chico in the centre of defence, with Ben Davies and Angel Rangel putting up a strong showing on the defensive wings.The failings however, came with the Jacks' inability to prevent the penalty area from being penetrated with overhead balls.
Swansea’s first-half woes were largely caused by a lack of attacking cooperation up front between Michu, Sung-Yong Ki and Nathan Dyer. Norwich had clearly been briefed and informed of the home side’s offensive operations and in the first-half it showed.
Michael Laudrup had clearly cleaned things up after the break however, but despite a comeback looking quite likely just fifteen minutes into the second-half. The Swans’ attack fizzled out and became victim to a series of physical forward movements from the Norwich front formation.
Swansea will now look ahead to their away trip at Tottenham and their next home fixture against Manchester United the day before Christmas Eve. Laudrup must look back at their last few winnings performances against Arsenal and West Brom to incite a new wave of momentum despite their first loss since losing 1-0 to Manchester City in October.
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