Manchester City have a firm grip on second place now. They were pushed all the way by Swansea, who remain in eighth place, but they had too much firepower in the end. Yaya Toure made the difference and City were indebted to a couple of incredible saves from Hart near the end. It was an entertaining game, both teams playing their part, and City deserved to win. Thanks for reading. Bye.
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Full-time: Swansea 2-4 Manchester City
It’s over!
90 min+4: This has been fun. Hooray!
GOAL! Swansea 2-4 Manchester City (Bony, 90 min+2)
The points are City’s. This is very nice from Wilfried Bony. Silva found him on the edge of the area. Bony was never going to pass. He dropped a shoulder, feinted to shoot, looking for that half a yard of space. Eventually he spied it and he threaded an accurate low shot through Taylor’s legs, the ball slithering across the turf, hitting the inside of the right post and rolling in. Fabianski didn’t move. Bony is such a good finisher. He holds up his hands by way of an apology to his former club and it’s met with applause from the Swansea fans. They can’t be that surprised.
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90 min: Marvin Emnes slams the free-kick straight into the wall.
89 min: There’s still work to do, though. Kolarov fouls Barrow from 25 yards, a little shove enough for Clattenburg to blow his whistle. If only Sigurdsson was still on the pitch!
88 min: As it stands, City are six points clear of Arsenal, havin played two games more. Second place is almost theirs.
85 min: Wilfried Bony appears. He’s on for Yaya Toure.
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84 min: Hart makes another brilliant save! Cork chips a superb diagonal cross over the City defence and Gomis looks nailed on to score! He’s mere yards out but his header is somehow pushed away by Hart! Bloody hell.
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83 min: Gylfi Sigurdsson is replaced by Marvin Emnes.
82 min: And Swansea almost make Kolarov regret his folly! Fernandez meets Sigurdsson’s corner with a bullet header. It’s destined for the top-left corner, but Hart somehow pushes the ball over the bar! What a save!
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81 min: Kolarov concedes a needless corner, badly misjudging a header back to Hart. He’ll be praying City don’t concede here.
80 min: Vincent Kompany replaces Fernandinho. Swansea have a corner. Mangala heads it away.
77 min: Swansea remove Jonjo Shelvey and introduce Leon Britton.
75 min: Fernandinho is booked for a clumsy foul on Barrow.
GOAL! Swansea 2-3 Manchester City (Toure, 74 min)
This is classic Yaya Toure. He receives the ball 30 yards from goal and decides to score. He barrels through the middle, so strong, so quick. Jack Cork tries to stay with him, but he’s basically hanging on for dear life. Toure is dragging him along for the ride. It’s like watching someone being pulled down the road by car, for crying out loud. Toure eventually reaches the edge of the area and that’s the cue for him to pummel a low shot past Fabianski, who couldn’t keep it out despite getting both hands to the ball.
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73 min: Swansea bring on Modou Barrow for Nathan Dyer.
70 min: City win a corner on the right. Milner takes it, but Mangala heads straight at Fabianski again.
69 min: City have set up camp in Swansea’s half.
66 min: Silva should restore City’s lead immediately! Swansea are sliced open by a smooth one-two between Milner and Silva on the left. Silva only had Fabianski to beat, no Swansea defender near him. But he wanted too long. It was almost as if he wanted to walk the ball into the net and Fabianski threw himself at Silva’s feet to block his shot!
GOAL! Swansea 2-2 Manchester City (Gomis, 64 min)
Swansea are level! They’ve fought back from 2-0 down! City will be kicking themselves, although this is a mightily impressive goal from Bafetimbi Gomis. From a deep position on the right, Jazz Richards measured a clever ball over the top to Gomis, who had pulled in between two City defenders. He still had a lot to do, but he took the ball down superbly and then screwed a right-footed volley past Hart and into the far corner! Who needs Wilfried Bony?
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63 min: City are making Fabianski earn his money. First Milner threads a pass through to Silva on the left. His drive is blocked by Fabianski at his near post. Then Milner skips to the byline and pulls the ball back to Navas. He looks certain to score, only to blast his shot straight at Fabianski! And that’s a costly miss, because...
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61 min: Zabaleta is booked for booting Shelvey up into the air.
60 min: A corner to City on the left. Kolarov hoicks it to the edge of the area and Navas clips a shot straight at Fabianski.
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59 min: Frank Lampard, who had a loan spell at Swansea back in the day, is given a big round of applause from the home fans as he walks off to be replaced by Jesus Navas. He made his league debut for Swansea! He was only a teenager!
58 min: City struggle to get the corner away. Silva tries to dribble the ball out of trouble, but he’s tackled by Williams, who shoots straight at Hart from 20 yards.
57 min: Montero is causing problems on the left with his pace and directness. Zabaleta has to concede a corner. It’s cleared, but Swansea continue to press, Sigurdsson whips a cross to the near post and Hart has to punch behind under pressure from Cork.
55 min: A slip from Williams on the halfway line allows City to mount a counter-attack. Lampard charges towards goal - Williams tries and fails to bring him down, the legend - and finds Aguero on the right. Aguero dabs a low ball into the middle and Lampard meets it on the run, but he can’t steer his shot past Fabianski. Swansea go straight up the other end from there. Shelvey shoots low and hard from 25 yards and Hart has to make a fine save down to his left, just tipping the ball wide. Nothing comes from the corner. But it was an eventful 60 seconds.
53 min: Have you ever fallen asleep at a football match?
50 min: Milner picks up the afternoon’s first booking for a foul on Montero. “I’m here with you, Jacob,” Salfordian Blue says. “Unfortunately, I have the mother of all hangovers, so I can’t contribute much beyond the odd groan. Irish whiskey is more potent than an in-form Sergio Aguero.”
48 min: Wilfried Bony appears on the touchline for a jog. He’s warmly applauded by the Swansea fans. Aguero also has a jog but it ends with him dragging a shot wide from 18 yards.
47 min: A corner to City on the right. Milner swings it in and Mangala loops a header straight at Fabianski.
46 min: It’s the second half!
Half-time: Swansea 1-2 Manchester City
There’s just enough time for City to threaten to score a third goal, but Aguero heads just over after Lampard and Zabaleta had caused havoc in the Swansea area, and that’s the cue for Mark Clattenburg to blow for half-time. City were looking comfortable 10 minutes ago, but Swansea have hope now! It could be a fascinating second half.
GOAL! Swansea 1-2 Manchester City (Sigurdsson, 45 min)
If you saw anyone saying that Swansea were flat, ignore it as the ramblings of a nincompoop. The ball reaches Gylfi Sigurdsson on the edge of the City area, he takes a touch and then batters a brilliant shot past Joe Hart with his right foot. Game on!
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44 min: Swansea are flat.
41 min: This could have been a penalty to City. Lampard burst past Fernandez, whose challenge was clumsy, but Mark Clattenburg showed some leniency. It probably helped that Lampard tried to stay on his feet.
39 min: Imagine if City had been this bothered earlier in the season. We might have had a title race!
GOAL! Swansea 0-2 Manchester City (Milner, 36 min)
Hang on, City were defending a corner a few moments ago. And now look! They’ve scored again! Poor old Swansea. City can hit you so quickly. It was just a hopeful punt up field from Lampard that started it. Sergio Aguero made mincemeat out of Jazz Richards, easily beating him for pace, and then finding James Milner on the overlap on the left. Milner swerved inside, past Taylor with a cute touch, and then slid a carefree finish underneath Fabianski.
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34 min: You’re all at the pub, aren’t you. Or in the sun. Or in bed.
31 min: Toure clips a ball over the top to Silva on the left. Swansea appeal for offside, but the flag stays down, and rightly so, Williams playing Silva onside. Silva saunters across the edge of the area but can’t get a shot away, so he tees up Toure instead. His effort is deflected over for a corner, from which Jack Cork almost makes a horrible mess of everything, completely mistiming his clearance and getting himself into a right old tangle. Luckily Fabianski is alert and grabs the ball before Cork can cause any more bother. Cork was in a bit of a confused frenzy there, like a cat chasing its own tail. Relax, Jack, it can’t hurt you, everything’s going to be okay.
29 min: Silva locates a pocket of space on the edge of the area, but his low effort is blocked. Swansea have to be careful. Every City attack is a threat now.
27 min: City are in their groove now. They break easily, Lampard finding Silva, Silva finding Kolarov. He zaps a vicious low ball into the middle and Lampard almost Lampards it in from close range. It’s just in front of him, though, and Taylor knocks it behind for a corner, from which Mangala heads wide.
25 min: The Liberty Stadium has fallen a bit flat. That goal from Toure has rather caught Swansea cold. They can’t have seen it coming. Which is partly why it happened.
23 min: Swansea don’t deserve to be behind. Should Fabianski have saved that? The deflection made a difference, but he might be disappointed he’s not kept it out.
GOAL! Swansea 0-1 Manchester City (Toure, 21 min)
Well this came out of of nothing. Yaya Toure lets fly from the edge of the area and although it was struck well, it looked like it was going to be an easy save for Fabianski down at his near post. The ball took a slight deflection off Ashley Williams’s left shinpad and Fabianski couldn’t react quickly enough. He looks miffed.
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18 min: Aguero puts the ball in the Swansea net but the flag is up for offside. No goal! It was tight, but the linesman got it spot on. It was a cracking pass from Lampard, mind you, and a great finish from Aguero.
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17 min: City are all over the place at the back. A long ball down the right flank should be dealt with by Mangala, but for some reason he decides to have a stop and think about the meaning of life, allowing Dyer to nip in and win the ball off him. Mangala wakes up, belatedly, but soon he’s left on his backside by Dyer, whose left-footed curler, heading for the far corner, is pushed wide by Hart. That’s an excellent save.
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16 min: A free-kick to City, 25 yards out, Silva brought down by Dyer. Kolarov is interested. He scored one against the comedy roadshow that passes for Queens Park Rangers Football Club last week, but he bends this one wide.
14 min: Excellent defending from Kolarov stops Dyer from skipping through on goal. City squander possession and Shelvey pings a brilliant pass through to Dyer. What vision! What execution! Shelvey has already done some hugely impressive things today. Dyer has the pace to get away from most of the City defenders - except for Kolarov, who streams across to win the ball and play it back to Hart.
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13 min: Sigurdsson’s outswinger from the right is headed over by Gomis. He couldn’t quite rise high enough - but the worry for City is how easily Gomis beat Demichelis to the ball.
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12 min: This is the Jefferson Montero show. He burns past the wheezing Pablo Zabaleta and chips a cross to the far post. Kolarov heads it behind for a corner.
10 min: There would have been controversy if this had gone in. Montero sped down the wing, cut inside and slipped a pass through to Neil Taylor. He was miles offside - miles! - but the flag stayed down and Taylor’s cutback was swept over by Gomis from close range. City wouldn’t have been happy if that had resulted in a goal. But it didn’t and the world keeps spinning.
9 min: Montero and Sigurdsson make sweet music down the Swansea left. Sigurdsson’s attempt at a one-two doesn’t quite come off, but the ball comes back to him and he drives into the area. However his cross is blocked.
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8 min: Swansea have started well. Their passing is crisp and they’re not giving City any space.
6 min: Fernandinho is too hasty with his attempts to win the ball off Sigurdsson and brings the Swansea midfielder down 40 yards from goal. Shelvey stands over it. He takes a long run-up and tries to spear a ball through to Gomis. It’s cut out.
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5 min: Aguero zips inside from the right and passes the ball straight to a Swansea defender. He’s rubbish.
3 min: A slightly soporific start - hey, I’m a hard man to please - but it livens up here, a poor clearance from Demichelis gifting possession to Shelvey. Suddenly City are open and Shelvey springs Gomis clear with an instant pass through the middle. Gomis runs at the City defence, ignores Montero to his left, beats Demichelis and shoots from 20 yards, forcing Hart to make a good save low down to his left.
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2 min: Swansea have a Grimes on the bench, which is just great. Sadly his name is Matt, not Frank.
And we’re off! Swansea, in their Real Madrid garb, get the ball rolling, kicking from left to right in the first half. Manchester City are in their purple away kits, because obviously blue clashes with white.
The teams are out. White Riot by The Clash is blaring out over the sound system. Which is acceptable.
The teams
Swansea: Fabianski; Richards, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor; Cork, Shelvey; Dyer, Sigurdsson, Montero; Gomis. Subs: Britton, Emnes, Grimes, Tremmel, Bartley, Barrow, Tiendalli.
Man City: Hart; Zabaleta, Demichelis, Mangala, Kolarov; Toure, Fernandinho; Milner, Lampard, Silva; Aguero. Subs: Kompany, Dzeko, Caballero, Bony, Jesus Navas, Clichy, Jovetic.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear)
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Preamble
Hello. Well this is nice, isn’t it. A Sunday lunchtime game, not much riding on it, two good teams with the pressure off; in theory, assuming this isn’t played at walking pace, this should be fun. Sit down, relax, take it all in, enjoy the football, don’t worry about whether Swansea are going to finish in the Europa League or whether Manchester City are going to finish second, all we’re after here is entertainment.
Kick-off: 1.30pm.
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