Five Star Swans Get First Ever Win At QPR

Swansea City romped to an incredible 5-0 victory today at QPR, their first ever at Loftus Road plus their first opening day win since 2005, as Michael Laudrup couldn’t have asked for a better start to his Premier League season.

New signing Michu got the Swans off to the perfect start on 8 minutes before adding a second early after the restart. Nathan Dyer also grabbed a brace before substitute Scott Sinclair got in the act, with a fifth with 9 minutes to play.

Many pundits and journalists again had Swansea City as one of their favourites for relegation, but Michael Laudrup was keen for his side to prove them all wrong, and they’ve gone a long way in doing that this afternoon.

While it’s only one game, and already people are pointing out relegated Bolton’s 4-0 opening day win last year, Laudrup and his team still look like a side that should be comfortable come next May. They’re still got the solid foundations from their debut Premier League season, with a few useful additions including Chico and Michu.

With QPR experiencing a positive period of adjustment over the Summer, with a host of new signings, they looked like providing the Swans with a big test away from home in Laudrup’s first competitive game in charge. While they did have moments of good spells of possession either side of Michu’s 8th minute opener, his quality along with the team’s clinical superiority, organisation and lack of mistakes were the big differences today.

Both managers had the benefit of some promising new signings to include in their starting elevens today. Former Wales manager Mark Hughes had the likes of former Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-Sung, Fabio, Hoilett, Green and in-form striker Cisse at his disposal in what promised to be an potentially exciting season for the London club. Whilst you cannot write-off any club’s chances after just one game, their fans must be feeling completely deflated, whilst there looks to be plenty of work to do to tighten up their defence.

Laudrup fielded the influencial £2m bargain buy Michu, as well fellow new signings de Guzman and Chico Flores.

A mistake from Robert Green gave Michu his first League goal in a Swansea City shirt after just eight minutes, and the second after 53 minutes gave the away side the confidence to score three goal, while QPR completely collapsed.

When you consider it took the Swans 7 games to score 5 goals at the start of last season, plus we probably had to average 10 or more chances per goals scored, our stats today tell an impressive story of just how clinical we were, as we needed just 12 shots on target to score 5, compared to QPR’s 20 and 0 goals.

Whilst Michu had the benefit of a fault from the host’s goalkeeper for his opener, there was nothing to deny the quality of his second. After surviving a few attacks from QPR, that saw Vorm forced into a few decent saves, the ruthless visitors punished them – for not taking their chances and their defensive errors. Routledge, starting in place of want-away winger Routledge, did brilliantly to setup Michu, who curled the ball around the outstretched Green.

The third was pretty much a gift, and it was all over for QPR’s chances of an unlikely share of the points.

Routledge raced forward again after an awful pass, and fed Dyer who fired the ball in. His second of the game soon arrived, as Agustien assisted with a lobbed pass.

With 19 minutes to go, you couldn’t rule out the visitors putting more misery on Rangers, and they did when Sinclair came on to score a fifth. The Swans were almost queuing up to score by this point, as he was fortunate that the ball fell to his feet to fire the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

It was the perfect day for the Swans, and you just couldn’t have asked for anything better. 5 goals, a clean sheet and an excellent win on their travels leaving no one to doubt Laudrup at this early stage, and there’s not even a whisper of second-season syndrome.

It might be early days I hear some of you say, but the signs look promising for another solid Premier League season.

QPR: Robert Green, Samba Diakite (Shaun Derry, 86), Anton Ferdinand, Clint Hill (Shaun Wright-Phillips, 64), Ji-Sung Park (capt), Djibril Cisse (Andrew Johnson, 77), Adel Taarabt, Jamie Mackie, Nedum Onuoha, Fabio da Silva, Junior Hoilett.

Subs: Brian Murphy, Ryan Nelsen, Kieron Dyer, Bobby Zamora.

SWANSEA: Michel Vorm, Angel Rangel, Chico Flores, Ashley Williams (capt), Neil Taylor, Leon Britton, Jonathan de Guzman (Kemy Agustien, 70), Michu (Mark Gower, 84), Nathan Dyer (Scott Sinclair, 77), Wayne Routledge. Danny Graham.

Subs: Gerhard Tremmel, Jazz Richards, Alan Tate, Luke Moore.