Man City Jack Swan by Jack Swan

Swa n JACKMan City V Swansea Online Edition Parental Advisory

Weekly Wage 1

Ben Davies 2

Yaya Toure

Get in Touch with Jack Swan www.JackSwan.co.uk / 07974 055529

M�� Ci�� 1 - 0 Sw�n�e� Champions League we’re having a laugh There has been mixed emotions thus far this season, the extreme highs of QPR and West Ham were combined with an air of uncertainty which proved right in the games that followed. Three valuable points at Wigan meant that we have started more superior to last season yet something hasn’t felt right, we needed to cling on after strolling to 2-0 up against Judas’s no-hopers and only a poor offside flag saved our blushes late on. The word ‘transition’ gets used a lot in football, especially with a new manager and I think its has been fair to say that our transition from Brendan to Laudrup has been up and down and at times worrying. Rumours of player unrest, players at times looking lost on the field and some of our better players putting in average performances had led me to question the Great Dane. Cue the Champions in their back garden. The one scalp missing from last season was an away point from one of the ‘big boys’. City, United and Chelsea beat us comfortably while Arsenal took advantage of a Rangel/Vorm mix up to take all three points. But yesterday, we were (and I say this very carefully) the better team. Chico and Ash looked far more comfortable up against Tevez and Aguero than Kompany and

Nastasic did with Michu as a lone man. Routledge and Hernandez looked more creative than Nasri and Kolorov and our midfield trio looked at ease against their multi-million pound men. This was Laudrups team, with Laudrups twist. De Guzman played magnificently in his freed-up midfield role. Ki, although not quite at his best put another assured performance in and Michu just looks a handful for anyone to deal with. It took a moment of real class to win the game for City, Carlos Tevez's stunner finding the corner past a then injured Vorm. 30 odd million pound well spent I guess. Hernandez put in one of the deliveries of the season which was then followed by one of the defensive headers of the season as Micah Richards somehow recovered to get to the ball before Michu had a simple finish by his standards. Michu was down for a bit and looked concussed and as we feared the worst the talisman got up with an arrogant swagger, shared some words with Joe Hart, smiled and carried on. Ten minutes later and Michu had the ball in the back of the net, another confident finish but he’d strayed slightly off side after Routledges through ball. Vorms distribution let him down once again in the second half as he saw a clearance go straight to Aguero who

Champions League we’re having a laugh There has been mixed emotions thus far this season, the extreme highs of QPR and West Ham were combined with an air of uncertainty which proved right in the games that followed. Three valuable points at Wigan meant that we have started more superior to last season yet something hasn’t felt right, we needed to cling on after strolling to 2-0 up against Judas’s no-hopers and only a poor offside flag saved our blushes late on. The word ‘transition’ gets used a lot in football, especially with a new manager and I think its has been fair to say that our transition from Brendan to Laudrup has been up and down and at times worrying. Rumours of player unrest, players at times looking lost on the field and some of our better players putting in average performances had led me to question the Great Dane. Cue the Champions in their back garden. The one scalp missing from last season was an away point from one of the ‘big boys’. City, United and Chelsea beat us comfortably while Arsenal took advantage of a Rangel/Vorm mix up to take all three points. But yesterday, we were (and I say this very carefully) the better team. Chico and Ash looked far more comfortable up against Tevez and Aguero than Kompany and

played in Tevez, Chico though, who was outstanding all game, stepped in and cleared the danger. Swansea finished the first half well with Hernandez faileing to capitalise when set free in the box. But the chance of the first half fell to that man Michu once again but he was also unable to convert Ki SungYueng's defence-splitting pass as England international Hart smothered his toe-poke. The champions cam out with more purpose in the second half and put Swansea under real pressure for the first 5 minute so. Aguero hitting it just wide just seconds after the restart. Mario came on to entertain us and screamed for a penalty when he realized he wasn’t going to make a cross by Micah Richards which was meant for him. Swansea weathered the storm and calmed the game down once again and Michu very nearly took the lead with a diving header which went straight at Hart, either side and the England keeper wasn’t getting there. It was a credit to Swansea that when Tevez received the ball on 60 minutes, he had no options, at that point city were looking clueless, every attack they made was being dealt with by a stubborn defence. When in doubt a striker shoots, it’s a sign of champions and top-top players that on this instance the ball goes in. It was cruel but that’s football in the premier league, Swansea huffed and

puffed after the goal seeking an equalizer but never got that golden chance. Mancini made defensive change after defensive change to close the game out which shows the respect he had for the Swans. The game became the longest match in premiership history thanks to a worriying looking injury to Vorm which will see him miss the next 6-8 weeks. The injury looked bizarre as he simply dived to prevent Tevez’s winner. Tremmel came on for the last half hour although we could have just put another striker on, he had so little to do. Micah Richards also picked up a bad injury and Rangel picked up the worst booking you will ever see which sees him miss the Liverpool Carling cup game. Last season we looked as though we were playing a cup game against a top premiership side, worked hard but looked so out of depth, this was a fair contest between two good sides. Admittedly City has played better and will expect more from their players but we never gave them the chance to run away from us and impose their quality. This was a performance to be proud of and a statement by Laudrup that we can be hard to beat against the big boys. Chelsea next week and I don’t think they will be looking forward to the trip after this performance. Cheers Mr Swan

Pl�� Ra��ng� � M�� Ci�� Vorm: 7/10 Amazingly he didn’t have an awful lot to do. A real injury blow for us as it looks like he’ll be out for 6-8 weeks but in truth he hasn’t been in the best of form and its possibly not the blow that it would have been this time last season. He couldn’t have done any better with the goal and did fine, I’m sure he’ll get back in when fit though

Davies: 7/10 £400 a week up against players earning £240,000 a week and he barely put a foot wrong. He has a tendency at times to just pass it straight to the opposition in parts of the field where you would rather he didn’t but he’s been a revelation and improved game on game.

Rangel: 7/10 Dived for a yellow card while blatantly fouled (yeah work that one out) but didn’t venture too far forward generally. We didn’t see any width from city which is a huge compliment to both full backs who at times went unnoticed as the dealt with everything with ease.

Williams: 8/10 Best performance of the season by a country mile. Hopefully he had just caught the pre-sign a contract bug which every player seems to have and yet we still insist on offering them contracts during the season as against in the 3 months they have off. Barely saw Tevez or Aguero, he had them in his pocket all game.

Chico: 9/10 I’m starting to like him. He looked a different class, dealt with basically everything and had the suss to mop up any mistakes which did occur during the game. Runs forward with purpose as well, he’ll score a screamer come the end of the season.

Ki: 7/10 He’s still settling in and will continue to blossom into the side but another accomplished performance. He drives the ball well, carried is with purpose and looks for the killer pass which unlocks defences. Shots aren’t coming off at the moment but they will.

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Britton: 7/10 Last season Yaya Toure made him look like a slow midget who was playing against a powerful giant. What a different a year makes, Leon looked comfortable in his usual role. Admitedly I don’t think he’s quite the accurate 97% man he was last season, I haven’t seen a stat yet but he was quality.

JDG: 8/10 Best performance in a Swans shirt, he looked as though he’s found his role for the team and enjoyed it. He was lively throughout and played the full 90 minutes, like Ki its only a matter of time before he hits the net.

Hernandez: 8/10 I got crucified on Planet Swans for giving him an 8 last week and making him MOM but I think he’s found his feet. Another good performance, he put in a wonder delivery in the first half and got himself into dangerous positions all game. He has an ability to make a very simple 4 yard pass into something exciting.

Routledge: 8/10 What can you say? He’s in the form of his life, keeping a player who should be in the England squad out of the starting 11 and ensuring it’s a Spanish international and not him who makes way for mr Dyer during the games. Looked dangerous for the whole 90 minutes and worked hard defensively too.

Michu: 9/10 We were told that he was signing of the season and there is no doubt about it. He gave Kompany nightmares, dominated him in the air, his movement was fantastic and not for the greatest keeper in the world, Micah Richards and a bit of bad luck he could have had a hat-trick. Top quality, a goal away from the perfect 10.

Tremmel Didn’t touch the ball hence our dominance. I hope he’s relishing the chance of a few games and not fearing it. Graham I feel like I’m just having a go at him all the time and I really don’t want to but I don’t understand why he’s coming on and Moore isn’t. Graham is off-form and Moore looks dangerous and scored the winner v City last season, I don’t get it, somebody tell me I@m wrong. Dyer Picked up a booking for nothing which kind of sums up how it’s going for him at the moment. Could do with 90 minutes v Liverpool in the week.

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Man City 1 - 0 Swansea Chalkboard Review Despite this match and the corresponding fixture last year both being goalless until an hour in, the difference between the two matches was enormous. Last season was like target practice for Man City and only an incredible display from Michel Vorm kept the score respectable. This season was far more of an even contest with the best chances falling to the Swans. Whenever a big side doesn't roll over their opponent the focus is naturally on the big team 'not performing'. It was true that some of their passing in the first half was pretty sloppy but the most shocking thing for me was the amount of space Michu found himself in as if Man City believed the 'no striker' selection and thought there was nobody to pick up. Man City managed only 11 attempts at goal in the whole match, to put that in to perspective, that is the same as their lowest total at home for the whole of last season (which was against Liverpool where they scored early and coasted to victory) and they only managed a single attempt on goal in the first half.

Attempts by Team. For both sides the vast majority of attempts came in the 2nd Half Man City were keen not to let the Swans settle on the ball too much which made for a staccato tempo with relatively little flow, although when they could string a sequence together it resulted in plenty of space to attack the Man City defence. There were a couple of areas I thought didn't go too well for Swansea and they were from long kicks from the keeper and throw-ins where possession was often lost too easily. From the kicks the ball would usually go towards Michu but the knock down end up with a Man City player. Similarly with throw-ins there were a number of cases where the ball was lost easily.

Long GK passes from both sides: Neither particularly successful but lack of variety in

Throw-ins from each side: Swansea had 7 unsuccessful throw-ins, more than they had in any game last season Overall for Swansea, there were excellent performances throughout the team but have highlighted a few in particular: On a number of occasions, Rangel was quick of mind and feet and was able to get away and start promising moves:

Take-ons by Rangel (left) and whole Swansea team (right). Rangel with 3 had the most successful take-ons of any player Ashley Williams made 10 of Swansea's 13 successful clearances and had a solid game overall

Chico was again impressive going forward and along with Ben Davies, is fitting in to what is hopefully a settled back line (although the loss of Vorm could be a big blow).

Chico with 4 tackles was joint top tackler but credit to Ben Davies for winning 4 out of 4 tackles including what I'm sure was an enjoyable 'man and ball' tackle against Balotelli Looking back on the stats after the game I was surprised to see how good De Guzman's passing figures were with 51 from 53 attempted. Looking at the chalkboard it can be seen that these are all over the pitch and not just 2 metre passes.

Passing from De Guzman against Man City (left) and previous game against Wigan (right) showing an impressive rage of passing Ultimately it was still a defeat and another game without a clean sheet, but the performance was impressive and it shouldn't be forgotten how many of the players in that side have played just a handful of games together so the level of understanding between players can improve even further suggesting that there could well be some big-name scalps to match those of last season.

Twitter: @we_r_pl http://www.twitter.com/we_r_pl Match Stats: Created using Statszone Chalkboards: Created using Statszone http://fourfourtwo.com/statszone

Fr�� Sw�n�1�0 �r��: Manchester City: When the Swans played Man City in their first-ever Premier League fixture last year, it was the first time the clubs had met in 27 years. By the time of the return fixture on 11th March at the Liberty, Swansea had learned how to hold their heads up in such a fiercely competitive league. The 1-0 victory against the eventual champions was a fantastic result for the Swans, Luke Moore’s 83rd-minute goal ensuring the Swans stayed well up in mid-table. It was a tremendous contrast to that opening game, when the Swans were torn apart in the second half to lose 4-0. It was said at the time that the sub, new signing Aguero who scored 2 goals, cost more than the entire Swansea City team. 100 years ago: 100 years ago Swansea Town were just about to enter a Welsh League home-and-away double-header with Barry on 31st October/2nd November. It was very common in the past to have the home-and-away fixtures against a particular club very close together. History against Man City: 22 games in all over the years, Swans W7 L13 D2. The first clash was on 25th September 1926. Swansea Town were the new boys in Division 2, having stormed to promotion the previous season. The legendary Jack Fowler scored the only goal for the Swans in Manchester as the lads bombed 1-3. Apart from Fowler, the team contained Billy Hole, Wilf Milne (Swansea’s all time most-appearances record holder), Joe Sykes and goalkeeper Jock Denoon. Len Thompson played up front, and outscored Fowler that season. For reasons that remain obscure, the Swans played most of the campaign without a manager, championshipwinning Joe Bradshaw having left for Fulham and not been replaced. The following season (1927-28) saw the teams share an astonishing total of 19 goals in their two league fixtures – surely got to be a record! City won 7-4 at home in the first game of the season, and the Swans got their revenge with a 5-3 pasting of the boys in sky blue at the Vetch only a week or so later. Lachlan MacPherson scored a hat-trick for Swansea in the home game. The second game against City was the last home game before the Double Decker (west) stand was officially opened. Swansea and Man City have never met in a competitive cup game.

(images: 1980’s programmes home and away; Next page: fans at Man city, courtesy of Ben Ace)

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