Match report
Here’s Stuart James’ report from the Liberty Stadium:
Swansea drop to 14th and Stoke whizz above them into 11th place after their third successive win. Bojan’s early penalty settled a disappointingly drab game. Swansea appear to have misplaced their spark. Nothing went right for them up front and it’s been that way for a while. They’ve not won since the end of August. Thanks for reading. Night.
Full-time: Swansea City 0-1 Stoke City
The points are Stoke’s!
90 min: There will be three more minutes.
89 min: Montero finally hangs a decent cross into the area but Ki seems to see it late and he heads it safely behind for a goal-kick.
86 min: Gomis holds it, holds it, holds it ... holds it ... holds it ... and then sets up Eder for a shot. Did he score? What do you think?
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84 min: “I don’t think of his performance as disappointing,” says Brian Mannebach. “I think it’s more of a fact of him playing out of position for 55 mins. He wasn’t able to make an impact behind Gomis. Curious squad choice for Monk to start Mo Barrow ahead of Sigurdsson.”
83 min: Eder escapes down the right and he’s scythed down by Van Ginkel. Swansea have a chance to fling the ball into the box. But the way this game has gone for them, it’s no surprise that Sigurdsson’s free-kick is headed away by the first man.
80 min: Swansea respond by making their final change, Eder on for the disappointing Andre Ayew.
79 min: Stoke make their final change, Stephen Ireland replacing Bojan, whose early penalty still separates the sides.
78 min: Ki’s clever pass through to Montero just has too much on it, the ball skidding behind for a goal-kick, the story of Swansea’s night.
75 min: Ibrahim Affelay replaces Marko Arnautovic for Stoke.
73 min: Where has Swansea’s spark gone? Stoke are very comfortable.
70 min: Stoke bring on Marco van Ginkel and remove Charles “Charlie” Adams.
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69 min: Sigurdsson makes his first major contribution, letting fly from 25 yards and almost bringing the house down with a drive that whistles just over the angle of post and bar. Butland was beaten.
68 min: Shaqiri dinks a lovely ball into the Swansea area from the right and Arnautovic darts across from the left to reach it. However he can only direct his flick wide under pressure from Fabianski, whose presence is enough to put Arnautovic off.
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66 min: Shaqiri is booked for an earlier challenge on Neil Taylor.
63 min: Neil Taylor produces a shot that wouldn’t be out of place in my five a side team, wafting an inept effort well over the bar from just inside the Stoke area.
62 min: The night has taken a turn for the worse. I’ve just been informed that my five a side team won 4-2 without me in a huge match. I’m devastated.
59 min: Swansea make their first changes, Ki and Gylfi Sigurdsson replacing Jack Cork and Modou Barrow. “Mark Hughes was said to be looking for a good performance from Joselu, but just looking for him at all seems to be a challenge in itself,” says Charles Antaki. “Has he wandered off?”
58 min: Jonjo Shelvey hits the inside of the post! He bustled into the Stoke box from the right, outwilling Wollscheid to the ball just outside the area, holds off a challenge and then drills a shot towards the far post. It slips underneath Butland, who’s taken by surprise by the power of the shot, and looks like it’s gone in. Most of the home fans are cheering for quite a while, until they realise that the ball has hit the inside of the post and skidded away to safety.
56 min: Stoke have the ball in the Swansea net but the flag is up for offside against Arnautovic when he converts Pieters’s cross from the left. It was an obvious decision.
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55 min: Stoke are keeping the ball well. Swansea are being kept at arm’s length. I wonder how long it will be before Monk turns to his bench. He has a few options there.
52 min: Shelvey tries to place a deliberate sidefooter inside the bottom-left corner from 20 yards. He places it outside the left corner.
51 min: Gomis locates a pocket of space outside the Stoke area. His scuffed shot will reach Butland one day in the near future. Moments later Gomis has another shot. This one whizzes high into Row Z. From one extreme to another in the space of a few seconds.
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50 min: Shaqiri has another go, this time for further out, and again the ball flies over the bar. He’s too desperate to impress at the moment.
47 min: Shaqiri slides a pass down the right towards Johnson and then receives it back from the Stoke right-back, the pair combining neatly. Shaqiri has space in the area but after taking a touch, he curls the ball well over the bar.
46 min: Stoke get the second half going. “Congrats Jacob on the most drama-filled minute ever recorded on an MBM: Not only do we get a penalty controversy, a brilliant spot-kick, and a shock early lead for Stoke, but Ray Reardon emails in to weigh in on the Guardian’s red, green, and grey dots,” says Justin Kavanagh. “So now we know what an ex-snooker World Champion spends his time thinking about in retirement on a Monday evening. Still dreaming of reds and greens when he sees a green surface on TV. Thanks Dracula!”
Half-time: Swansea 0-1 Stoke
The half-time whistle is greeted by boos. Stoke lead thanks to Bojan’s early penalty.
45 min+1: Robert Madley treats himself to two more minutes in which he can wind up the Swansea fans.
45 min: Stoke finally get a booking as Pieters chops down Barrow. There are ironic cheers.
44 min: Ayew stabs a cross into the area from the left. It’s headed away. Stoke counter and another decision goes Swansea’s way. Monk smiles and shakes his head.
41 min: There is more rancour in the stands as Ashley Williams is booked for leading with his arm in an aerial challenge with Joselu, who needs some treatment after taking a whack to the noggin. Garry Monk is furious.
39 min: Much of this first half has been devoted to booing the referee.
36 min: Stoke’s attackers have woken up. Now Arnautovic peels away down the left, racing into the Swansea area. He’s held up after taking too long to make up his mind but he holds on to the ball and then tees up Adam. However Adam has to shoot with his weaker right foot and, well, if you’re the kind of person who thinks you should keep quiet if you have nothing nice to say, you won’t want to read about Charlie Adam’s right foot.
35 min: This would have been a brilliant goal. Johnson plays a pass inside to Shaqiri and continues his run into the area. Shaqiri spins, spots him and then jabs a fine pass through to Johnson, Swansea torn apart just like that. Johnson steams away, towards the Swansea goal, only to let himself down with a wild finish that dribbles miles past the far post. I’m not sure what I think about Johnson, the Stoke right-back, wearing the No8 shirt. It’s unsettling me.
34 min: Shelvey’s corner is easily claimed by Butland.
33 min: Twist. Turn. Cross. Block. Corner. Montero wins Swansea a corner on the left.
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31 min: This is a worry for Swansea. Ayew is down in the Stoke area, perhaps as a result of a collision with Whelan.
29 min: Shaqiri, quiet so far, darts inside from the right and scoops a ball towards Joselu on the edge of the area. He’s got his back to call, so obviously he tries to score with an acrobatic and ambitious bicycle kick. He wasn’t too far off.
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25 min: Stoke are begging to concede. They keep giving the ball away with sloppy passes in their own half.
24 min: “It’s not big, and it’s not clever, but is there anything in the world more satisfying than a stadium full of people swearing at one man in perfect unison?” says Matt Dony. Especially if that man is Piers Morgan.
23 min: Right on cue, an ironic cheer.
21 min: Robert Madley, the referee, is engaging the wick of the Swansea fans. They are being infuriated by his decisions. Expect an ironic cheer soon.
19 min: Should Butland have been sent off? It was a yellow card at the very least, a dangerous challenge that could have hurt Ayew, although I’m not sure the tackle itself was worthy of a red card. However it could be argued that the way Butland won the ball denied Ayew an obvious goalscoring challenge.
17 min: Swansea attack down the right flank and Barrow sends a cross into the Stoke area. Gomis heads wide at the near post. That’s better from Swansea. Moments later, Stoke almost implode. Butland is under little pressure with the ball at his feet, just inside his own area, but he inexplicably makes a hash of his attempted pass to a nearby Stoke defender, somehow managing to produce the most farcical of double kicks, looking like a man whose shoelaces are tied together. The ball squirts away from him and towards Ayew, so Butland, in a panic, reacts by racing out of his area and launching into a slide tackle to win the ball. His studs are up as he makes contact with the ball, followed by man, and the Swansea man goes flying into the air. Incredible Butland gets away with it. How is that not a foul? Swansea are furious.
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16 min: Geoff Cameron gets the wrong side of Gomis on the halfway line and brings the Swansea striker down with a cynical foul. He’s extremely lucky to escape without a booking. Gomis would have been away.
15 min: Shelvey embraces the spirit of the Rugby World Cup and decides to demonstrate how to take a conversion.
14 min: Cork’s heels are clipped by Whelan as he tries to play a pass 30 yards from goal. Swansea have a free-kick in a dangerous position. Here comes Jonjo Shelvey.
11 min: Swansea can’t get anything going at the moment. The home fans are very quiet. Swansea haven’t won since beating Manchester United in August.
9 min: Stoke are dominant. Swansea’s confidence has been jolted by going behind. “Good to see Robert Madley (or R-Mad as I like to call him) getting a run out so soon after trying to destroy the Chesea-Southampton game his last time out,” says JR in Illinois. “So now we know he is capable of calling a penalty. Maybe he was saving the ones from last game to use today.”
7 min: “Do you think Mark Hughes tries to relate to signings like Bojan and Afellay by telling them that he, too, was also loaned out by Barcelona?” says Stephen Mitchell. “I suspect that he does, and in a way conveys bitterness at how it was really Barcelona’s loss, before proceeding to inquire about Alex Song’s buyout clause.” I reckon he shows them videos of his volleys.
5 min: Swansea are all over the place at the back. Joselu wins the ball just outside the area and does well to wriggle to the byline on the left. His cutback is hastily cleared.
GOAL! Swansea 0-1 Stoke (Bojan pen, 4 min)
Wallop! Bojan dusts himself down after winning the penalty and then gets up to bang it into the top left corner, Fabianski going in the opposite direction. Stoke lead.
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PENALTY TO STOKE!
3 min: This is brilliant from Bojan! He bursts into the Swansea area and beats Ashley Williams with ease thanks to a terrifying burst of pace, coupled with a neat shimmy, and the Swansea captain clumsily brings the little striker down. The referee does not hesitate to point to the spot.
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3 min: Montero has his first run at Johnson. His cross is headed away. “I note the Guardian’s new schematic green and red dashes and grey dots for designating wins, losses and draws should be accompanied by a chart similar to the Morse Code charts,” says Raymond Reardon. “In it you will find a five red dashes example, Aston Villa, as equivalent to the old SOS, five grey dots as impersonating an Italian football club and an assortment of green and red dashes interspersed with grey dashes as representing dogs going backwards or, in some cases, going forwards.”
And we’re off! Swansea, all in white, get the game going, kicking from right to left in the first half. Stoke are in their black away strip. Swansea did a huddle before we got going. It would be good if someone could look up the stats on how successful huddles have been down the years. I believe that’s what’s known as analytics. A proper football man would have nothing to do with research of that nature.
Here come the teams! Soon there will be football.
Sky interviewer: “It’s Joselu up front for you, what are you looking for from him?”
Mark Hughes: “Well I’m looking for a good performance...”
Thanks, Mark.
The teams!
Swansea: Fabianski; Rangel, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor; Cork, Shelvey; Barrow, Ayew, Montero; Gomis. Subs: Nordfeldt, Naughton, Bartley, Britton, Sigurdsson, Ki, Eder.
Stoke: Butland; Johnson, Cameron, Wollscheid, Pieters; Whelan, Adam; Shaqiri, Bojan, Arnautovic; Joselu. Subs: Haugaard, Muniesa, Ireland, Wilson, Affelay, Van Ginkel, Crouch.
Referee: Robert Madley.
Preamble
Hello. It’s Swansea City v Stoke City on a Monday night and the reason you’re not excited is because you’re a snob who judges a book by its cover. Oh yes, the gloves are off. Shame on you! Shame! Look at Swansea. Great club, excellent manager, interesting players. Garry Monk has done a terrific job, they still play fine football and they’ve got Jefferson Montero, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Andre Ayew and Bafetimbi Gomis. A tastier collection of players than Stoke’s? Arguably. But Stoke, once so crude and unloveable, have had a makeover and can now boast about a squad containing Bojan Krkic, Xherdan Shaqiri, Marko Arnautovic and Ibrahim Affelay. They’ve not started the season too smartly but Mark Hughes’s sides sometimes take a while to get going. After two wins on the bounce, they’re beginning to click, so leave any pre-conceived ideas you may have at the door, come on in and enjoy the game. This could be good! Unless it’s not, in which case we reserve the right to heap scorn on both sides.
Kick-off: 8pm.
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