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Unlucky Swans Denied At End
Wednesday, 26th Mar 2014 08:15

The Swans came away from the Emirates Stadium last night with a point that showed their fighting spirit but an untimely whistle from referee Lee Probert denied them the chance of turning that into a massively valuable three points in the fight against relegation.

It was the fourth minute of stoppage time when Pablo Hernandez played in Jonathan De Guzman and the midfielder looked to start to race clear of the Arsenal defence to give himself the chance of scoring the winning goal which would have given the Swans a second successive league win at the Emirates Stadium.

However, referee Probert had other ideas as he blew his whistle for full time to be surrounded by Swansea players furious that he had denied them the chance to score the goal with the final whistle. It was a natural reaction and we can only hope that come May 11th we aren't left wondering what would have been had he elected to wait just ten seconds more to signal the end of what had been an entertaining game.

It would have possibly been the perfect ending for the Swans to pull them further away from the bottom three in the division but we have to take the positives of a point definitely gained over the course of the evening against a side that started the night with title ambitions.

Those ambitions are probably over for another year for the home side who now just have the FA Cup to play for in a season that promised so much while we can go into the weekend game against Norwich with a renewed confidence and knowing that three more points come Saturday afternoon and fears of relegation will be probably one win away from being completely extinguished.

The Swans had led for so long thanks to a near perfect first half. If much criticism has been levelled at Garry Monk for some of his tactics in recent weeks there is little doubt that in the first 45 minutes at the Emirates he got it spot on. Much of what he did is what we have seen sides do to us that frustrates us and that is he gave Arsenal plenty of the ball but a well organised and tight defence meant that very little of that ball resulted in chances for Arsenal.

Michel Vorm was very much almost a watching part in the first half as Arsenal threatened much but in reality delivered very little keeping the Swansea goalkeeper quiet thanks to a defence expertly marshalled by captain Ashley Williams who was definitely in a mood where nothing would get past him.

The Swans were rarely coming out of their half but it was on one of the rare occasions where they did that they took the lead to silence the Emirates and place a feeling of doom around the ground that had more than its fair share of empty seats.

Neil Taylor - back in the side at the expense of Ben Davies - grabbed the ball in his own half and ventured over the halfway line. As he looked up Wilfried Bony indicated where he wanted the ball and Taylor delivered it to perfection to watch the striker rise and head home the ball for his 20th goal in his debut season for the Swans. Taylor's delivery was as brilliant as the Bony header and the Swans celebrated their early lead that only added to the home side's frustration as we kept them at bay.

At half time the fear amongst most of the watching fans would have been the change that we have seen so recently in the second half where first half strong performances have given way for much weaker second periods but this was not to be this time.

The Swans continued with the same tactic that had become so effective in the first half as it was working as the clock ticked away towards full time. As Arsenal became more needing of an equaliser the spaces started to open up and De Guzman, Routledge, Shelvey, Michu and Bony were all afforded more of the ball than they had seen in the first half and you wondered if the second was coming.

Michu missed a couple of good chances to double the Swans lead before being replaced by Nathan Dyer as Monk looked to make changes to keep the legs fresh and keep Arsenal at bay.

Just as the Swans fans started to believe that this would be another one of those historic nights Arsenal grabbed the equaliser. Good work on their left saw Rangel beaten for pace and the cross into the box was finished off by substitute Podolski and Arsenal were level. I am not sure I would be overly criticial of Rangel on the first goal but if he was critical of himself that may explain him being caught out of position for the second goal less than two minutes later.

Almost straight from the kick off the defender seemed too keen to win the ball back and as the Swans surrendered possession on halfway Rangel's defensive area was exposed again and this time it was Giroud who grabbed the second goal and Arsenal were ahead.

It was not what the Swans deserved at that point in time and to go behind to two goals so close together seemed cruel on the side that had battled so well to that point.

And credit to them they continued to battle on and went in search of an equaliser rather than thinking they were beaten. And the equaliser came but with more than a fair share of luck - something so sadly that has been missing in recent weeks.

Leon Britton was instrumental in it all with some intricate passing in midfield that saw the ball played to him in the box in a good area. The ball though just would not seem to come under his control to get the shot away as he would have liked but as it deflected onto the goalkeeper and back onto Flamini it rolled into the empty net and the Swans were fighting back for a point.

And that was how it turned out in the end thanks to the late intervention of Probert who will have done little to endear himself to Swansea fans with his late whistle.

We though do have to focus on the positives of the night and take those into Saturday's game where another performance of that level will see us take three points. We can do it.

Photo: Action Images



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