It was a sensational turnaround, Swansea finding belief and determination to score two late goals and win a match that looked to have slipped beyond them. For Carlos Carvalhal it was just a start, three points in their fight against relegation. As he spoke, however, the new manager could not quite hide a smile.
Carvalhal, appointed as Paul Clement’s replacement just 48 hours before this match, very much left his mark on it. The winning goal was scored by Luciano Narsingh after Heurelho Gomes failed to hold a fierce long-range drive from Nathan Dyer. Both players entered the match as second-half substitutes, as did Oliver McBurnie, who set up Jordan Ayew’s equaliser. Tactics changed and new formations were employed too, but perhaps most importantly the Portuguese’s new charges seemed to have found some of the confidence so sorely lacking from their play this season.
“We finished the game trying everything to win,” Carvalhal said after the match. “We played with two attackers, two wingers, [full back Martin] Olsson played like a winger. We tried everything to win, but if the players don’t play with commitment, with heart, you don’t win.
“In two training sessions it’s not easy to give a new formation to the players but the main ideas were there. If the beginning of this is what we did today then I believe we will be better in future. We will improve the dynamic, play better. But just because we win one game, it doesn’t mean that it’s paradise, all birds and flowers. Before this match if you asked 100 people who would be relegated, 100 would say Swansea. After this match, maybe it’s 98.”
For Watford, this was a chastening defeat. Ahead in the match from the 10th minute after André Carrillo headed home, it appeared that they were cruising to victory. But Marco Silva’s men should have known that appearances can be deceptive. They seemed sure that a second goal would eventually arrive, but never actually scored it and have now given up more points from a winning position this season than any other club in the Premier League.
Silva was reluctant to accept his team had let themselves down in this match, citing mid-winter fatigue and a small squad that wouldn’t tolerate too much rotation. “It was a big disappointment for all of us and for our fans‚” he said. “I think we did enough to win this match. Our opponents shot once at our goal in the opening minutes and after they didn’t create one chance until they scored. We had enough chances to kill the match and we controlled it.
“We are playing three games in a short time, we have a lot of injuries and it’s not easy to make rotation every time. These three games, when you play more or less same 11 it is not easy for our players to be fresh in the second half. But it was the same for our opponent.”
Therein lay the rub. The early chance Silva spoke of saw Ayew crash a shot off Gomes’s bar from 25 yards in the third minute. Seven minutes later and the goalkeeper’s long kick found Stefano Okaka. The big striker controlled the ball, turned and slipped Richarlison past Kyle Naughton.
The Brazilian in turn got off a shot that Lukasz Fabianski parried horribly to the Peruvian Carrillo for his first goal for Watford. But after that, the home side’s chances dribbled away, while Swansea found more confidence and ultimately more assertiveness.
After Narsingh was introduced at half-time for defensive midfielder Roque Mesa, McBurnie came on for the hobbling Tammy Abraham and immediately put himself about. Dyer was added to the mix as well, adding pace on the left flank. And finally emerging from his shell was Renato Sanches, liberated in the middle of the park and able to run at the Watford back line.
At 1-0 Watford created the one chance that really should have killed the game but Okaka’s replacement Andre Gray was denied by Fabianski after being put clean through. Then the moment Swansea had been waiting for finally arrived. Narsingh got the ball on the right and floated a cross to the back post where McBurnie won his duel and headed down to Ayew six yards out from goal. Watford screamed for offside but Ayew was on and he coolly tucked the ball home past Gomes.
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