For Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner and Charles Bronson read Gylfi Sigurdsson, Fernando Llorente, Leon Britton and Paul Clement. Swansea City pulled off the greatest escape since Harry Houdini was performing his “get out of jail free” acts. At the turn of the year, the club was bottom of the Premiership with 12 points from 19 games. Not many teams have avoided the drop from such a precarious position.
They lost 0-3 to fellow strugglers, Bournemouth on New Year’s Eve, and Bob Bradley was belatedly dismissed from a job where his only somewhat bizarre credential was the fact he was American to satisfy the whim of new American owners. He was managing Le Havre in the French Second Division for goodness sake when he was plucked from relative obscurity to manage a Premiership Club which proved to be way above his pay grade.
Paul Clement was hired on January 3rd and the Swans defeated Crystal Palace 2-1 the same day. The team was selected by caretaker manager Alan Curtis, but Clement quickly left the comfort of the stand to add support to Alan Curtis’ cajoling.
Clement engineered another four wins over the next couple of months including a surprising away win over Liverpool. Losses to Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea during that period didn’t dim the spirit and optimism that Clement had created and remarkably they were 4 points clear of the relegation zone.
It appeared to be a false dawn.Inexplicably they could only muster one point from their next six matches which dropped them back into the relegation zone. They lost to fellow strugglers Hull City, could only take one point off the worst team in the Division, Middlesbrough, and were totally inept in losses to Watford and West Ham. Prior to those two losses, they played Tottenham Hotspur at home who were lying second in the table. The Swans led for 83 minutes before conceding an equalizer. Clement’s body language on the touchline suggested he would be content to take a point when unfortunately the floodgates opened and Spurs scored two more goals to snatch a win they barely deserved.
The players were shell shocked by the devastating loss to Spurs, and while not citing it as an excuse, it surely contributed to the subsequent losses to Watford and West Ham. Clement was clearly stunned by the team’s reversal in fortunes which possibly influenced him to make three important decisions in a last ditch effort to avoid relegation:
- Since he was appointed manager, he had resisted the temptation of placing too much pressure on the players. However he informed the Media and fans that the next home game against Stoke City was a must win for the Club.
- He decided to return wily veteran and club captain Leon Britton to the fold having ignored him for the past four months.
- With the return of Britton, he decided to play with the diamond formation in midfield.
The players responded to Clement’s rallying call and defeated Stoke 2-0 on April 22nd, but remained 18th in the table, two points adrift of Hull City and safety. But a first victory since March would give them a much-needed lift with four matches to play. The following week, the Swans earned a valuable point at Manchester United which could easily have been three if Llorente had not missed a sitter nearing the end of the match. Unfortunately Hull grabbed a point at Southampton and the Swans still trailed them by two points.
However,Week 36 would prove to be the pivotal point of the season. Hull played relegated Sunderland in the early Saturday game and surprisingly lost 0-2 at home. The Swans were entertaining Everton two hours later, and aware that a win would leapfrog them over Hull and move them out of the relegation zone for the first time in weeks. A 1-0 win was grinded out against a disappointing Everton side, and the Swans were now one point ahead of Hull with destiny firmly in their hands with two games to go.
Last weekend introduced a role reversal with Swansea playing first on Saturday, followed by Hull’s game against fellow strugglers Crystal Palace on Sunday. Ironically, the Swans were away to Sunderland who had done them such a favour by defeating Hull the previous weekend. Fortunately, Sunderland were a pale shadow of the team which snatched the points from The Tigers, and the Swans, magnificently supported by the Jack Army, secured a comfortable 2-0 victory to take them four points clear of Hull. Hull appeared to be suffering from a hang over from the Sunderland defeat, and were walloped 0-4 at Crystal Palace, leaving the Swans safe from relegation for another season.
I guess avoiding relegation by the skin of your teeth shouldn’t be a cause for celebration. Nevertheless, it appeared so implausible that a retreat from the abyss could be achieved with only four matches remaining, that celebration is obviously tempered with relief.
Paul Clement believed that Swansea’s fate would be decided by the final game of the season, but fortunately he was wrong, and not for the first time since he was appointed. In his defence, he has probably got more things right than wrong, and Saturday’s home game against West Bromwich Albion should be a big party for players, staff and more importantly the beleaguered supporters. O Nerth I Nerth.
