Swansea City 1 Manchester City 1
Sunday, 15th May 2016 18:18 by Planet Swans (follow us on Twitter @swansnews)

The Swans ended the season in 12th place after holding Champions League bound Manchester City to a 1-1 draw at the Liberty Stadium this afternoon thanks to a deflected free kick from Andre Ayew.

Ayew scored the Swans first goal of the season so it was probably somewhat fitting that he scored the last one as well as we ended the season in a position that didn't seem possible as little as one month ago and having taken seven points from nine available in our last three home games that were against Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City.

Ayew's goal cancelled out an early Manchester City strike that was given, ruled out and then given again by the ever popular Mike Dean who eventually made the right decision despite his best efforts to screw it up.

It was an entertaining encounter at the Liberty which started with City knowing that a point would secure a return to a competition that they reached the semi finals of this season. And whilst our visitors set out this season for a prize far greater than the 4th place they eventually secured thanks to this point.

Team Selection

We knew roughly what we were going to expect from today's team with Fabianski, Williams, Taylor and Sigurdsson all missing in preparation for the European Championships. There was a first Premier League start for Kristoffer Nordfeldt as well as a return for Jefferson Montero. Stephen Kingsley was once again given the chance to show what he is capable of doing.

First Half

The Swans were under pressure early doors and whilst there was some doubt about whether the goal was going to be given, the right decision was made eventually. Nordfeldt saved well from an Aguero shot but it was Iheanacho who reacted first to score the opening goal of the afternoon. The Swans appeals looked to be upheld as appeared to be cancelling out the strike but he changed his mind and gave the goal to the confusion of both sets of spectators.

The Swans looked as if they had hit back quickly when Montero bundled in a cross from the right hand side but it was quickly cancelled off for a foul on the defender as the referee did nothing to endear himself to the home crowd.

City were dominant in the first half as the Swans seemed hell bent on giving the ball away more than we needed to and it took a couple of neat saves from Nordfeldt to keep the score to just one goal difference.

The Swans though slowly came into it and the missing Gylfi Sigurdsson would have been ruing the Swans having a couple of free kicks that were very poorly executed before they eventually profited from the third

Fer and Ayew stood over the ball and Ayew was the one who eventually struck the shot off the wall that left Joe Hart flat footed and bought the home support to its feet.

Second Half

The second half was pretty much a non event although both sides tried to break forward and score and whilst City always looked the most likely they never really tested Nordfeldt whilst the Swans gave a relative easy afternoon to Joe Hart.

Guidolin tried to make changes but the introduction of Barrow proved to be less effective than in some other games and Gomis never really got into the game (some would say that is very much the story of his season)

I think we found a stage in the second half where the Swans were happy with the draw and City certainly were as their Top four finish was secured and the game dwindled into a 1-1 draw with some ease

It certainly hasn't been our best Premier League season and large parts of it were there to be forgotten very quickly but ultimately we have ended the season in 12th place and the performances of the last few games have got to have increased the optimism levels ahead of next season.

How many days until the fixtures are released?