Swansea City scored their first ever goal at the Etihad Stadium but it wasn’t enough to get a point against Premier League champions Manchester City.
After an 8-0 aggregate over 3 games between the two sides at the Etihad, not many,if any neutral onlookers would have predicted anything other than a fourth routine home win for Manchester City over the Swans.
However, the Welsh side look a much stronger outfit now compared to previous years when they failed to even score a goal away at the Champions. It took Monk’s side just 9 minutes to end that barren run as Wilfried Bony increased his tally to five for the season with a well taken goal.
Space given to Swansea early on
The Swans made a bright start to the game as the hosts gave Monk’s side far too much time and space on the ball in all areas of the pitch.
This time and space on the ball allowed the visitors to convert their only chance of the first half, as the opening goal from Bony served as a wake-up call to Manchester City, they stepped up their game and dominated the remaining 35 minutes or so.
The hosts applied good pressure in the opening few minutes, but it didn’t last long as the Swans had far too much freedom to play.
Ki and Carroll worked effectively together in their holding midfield roles. They saw a lot of the ball in the opening 10 minutes and could easily pick out the likes of Sigurdsson and Bony to try and create attacking moves.
Above, Ki has plenty of time and space to move forward and pick a pass, and when the ball moved into the host’s half, space was still available to continue possession.
Above, Sigurdsson has plenty of room in the middle to receive the ball from Rangel, while below, Montero is the only Swansea City who is tightly marked.
Carroll, Bony, Ki and Sigurdsson all have some space in the opposition’s half above.
The space is even greater in the example below as Manchester City are forced to play and attack through the wide areas, their players all have to shift back inside and the Swans can quickly use the space that’s left behind.
Thankfully, the Swans took full advantage of this early on and scored within the first 10 minutes with what was their only chance on goal in the opening 45.
Swansea’s opening goal
Manchester City’s defense hardly looked like that of a team defending their Premier League title, they were all over the place for Swansea’s only goal of the game.
Gylfi Sigurdsson’s diagonal run takes one defender out of the game, but City still have a number of other defenders there to deal with the threat.
You can see above, Kompany (circled) is caught in two minds, whether to shift to his right to close down Bony, which he should do, or to move to his left – to join three of his colleagues who can all mark Sigurdsson.
Kompany does neither, the rest of the defence are caught ball watching, Zabaleta offers no defensive support just inside the penalty box and he doesn’t move in a desperate attempt to apply the offside trap.
Dyer can also delay his pass, wait for Bony’s run before cleverly flicking the ball into his path as the striker chests it down before confidently slotting it past Joe Hart.
4-4-2 defensive shape
Swansea’s early opener was a wake up call for the home side, and they started to take over and dominate possession.
Domination in middle third without the ball
But like the game against Arsenal, Swansea’s defensive shape was solid for most parts of the game, operating again in a 4-4-2 formation without the ball, they forced City to attack via the flanks as the Swans dominated the middle third when out of possession.
Man City having to attack via the wide areas
Like Arsenal had to, City were forced to attack down the flanks, and they constantly tried to get the ball forward down these wide channels.
You can see below, Swansea’s dominance in midfield and their 4-4-2 defensive shape as City move the ball wide.
Man City’s equaliser
Swansea City’s defensive shape let them down on one occasion and the home side took full advantage.
We’ve seen in previous games how the Swansea wingers have dropped deeper to fall in line with the defence, creating a 6-man back line, but this doesn’t occur below.
As you’d expect, Taylor shifts inside to add support inside the penalty area, closely marking Zabaleta, and you also have goalscorer Jovetic making a run into this area that isn’t tracked.
Montero should be marking the wide player Navas in this instance. The flying winger has sometimes not tracked back in previous games, but a midfielder, most often Ki, has covered him, but this isn’t evident here either.
Below, Montero finally comes across to cover Navas, Taylor is also free to move wide to close him down. Neither of them do so, and he can easily curl in a low cross to pick out Jovetic.
Below, Jovetic gets in between both centre backs – Williams and Bartley to finish from less than 6 yards.
Of course, this will have angered Garry Monk even more as these are the basics of the defensive shape that have been worked on in training. They’ve been executed to a tee in previous games, particularly at Everton.
Manchester City continued their domination, but Swansea still dominated the midfield without the ball, forcing the likes of Toure to come wide to move the ball to the flanks.
Manchester City almost go in front as below, Jovetic tries again to make a run in between both centre backs to get on the end of an excellent through ball, but fortunately Fabianski was able to collect the ball.
Swansea City, meanwhile, were glad to go in with the scores still level at half time. Within two minutes of the restart, they gave the home side a reminder that they could still offer a threat as Bony puts Montero through on goal but Hart is quickly to it and a corner kick is won.
Unfortunately though, in terms of chances, that was about it for the Swans until Monk brought on Gomis and Barrow in the final 15 minutes or so.
Man City’s winner
Manchester City scored the all-important winning goal just after the hour mark and it was given to them by a poor pass.
Tom Carroll, who had carried on from his impressive performance against Arsenal, made 1 bad pass in the entire game, and it led to Toure’s winner.
You can see above, his only failed pass in the entire game in red, allowing Manchester City to attack from that position.
Above, Carroll tries to pass the ball up to Montero, but he doesn’t get enough contact on the ball and City can put the Swans under pressure.
Above, space opens up on the edge of the penalty and goalscorer Yaya Toure can make a free run into the danger area.
Taylor moves out wide to cover the threat, but the real threat is where he originally was.
Toure can power through into the penalty box, Taylor comes back inside, he doesn’t make a challenge and Toure was always going to find the net from about 8 yards out.
Late Swansea chances and subs impact
What was impressive about Swansea City was their character and desire to get back into the game after going behind having taken an early lead.
Their heads could have dropped, they could have given up and gone on to lose 3-1 or more, but there’s clearly a lot more belief and confidence within the team that they could still get something at a place like Manchester City, despite struggling to create a single clear cut chance since their goal.
Garry Monk again looked to Bafetimbi Gomis and Modou Barrow to make an impact and the French striker should have at least with a glorious chance to equalise in a one-on-one situation.
It was good to see Bony and Gomis on the field at the same time for a short spell, and Bony slotted a ball through for the Frenchman, but like he did at Chelsea earlier in the season, he poked a shot past the goalkeeper but also well wide of the right hand post.
Gomis also had another opportunity when Barrow showed his pace and raced clear down the right wing. He put in a decent, low cross into the penalty area but Gomis doesn’t make a committed run across to the front post, allowing the defence to easily clear.
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