SWANS’ LATE, LATE AGONY
BOSS CLEMENT PROTESTS AGAINST BUILD-UP TO CITY WINNER AS VALUABLE POINT SLIPS FROM THEIR GRASP
Swansea City boss Paul Clement was left devastated as a precious Premier League point disappeared in stoppage time away to Manchester City yesterday.
The Welsh club looked on course for a well-earned draw until Gabriel Jesus pounced for his second goal of the game to give Pep Guardiola’s side home 2-1.
Clement, whose side are 17th in the table and just a point above the drop zone, expressed his frustration about the winning goal, saying a free-kick for City in the build-up should not have been awarded and was taken from the wrong position.
“My opinion is that it wasn’t a foul,” Clement said.
“It was right in front of me. (Luciano) Narsingh tried to evade the challenge of (Aleksandar) Kolarov. The linesman has thought he’s got him and thrown him across his body but that wasn’t the case – Kolarov has tried to go shoulder to shoulder, Narsingh has got out of the way and Kolarov has gone across the front of him.
“Okay, you can get those or not – but it is the restart I am disappointed about.
“It was 10 metres deeper than it should have been, in a more central position, and the ball is rolling.
“In the time it takes for that ball to go back and be taken from the correct place, I am confident my team is in a more organised state than it was when they took the free-kick.
“Ultimately, there is an error defensively (from Swansea when the goal went in). but it I don’t think it should have got to that point.
“We’d done enough over the 90 minutes to warrant the draw. I don’t think we deserved to win, but a draw would have been fair.”
City were forced to dig deep despite completely dominating the first half.
Jesus’s 11th-minute opener was all the hosts had to show for a superb performance early on and they were made to pay for their profligacy when Gylfi Sigurdsson equalised nine minutes from time.
Theyrousedthemselves in the latter stages and snatched victory in injury time when Jesus tapped in after Lukasz Fabianski had saved his initial header.
Boss Guardiola admitted he has been surprised by how quickly Jesus has adapted to life in England.
He said: “Now we have to protect him but everybody is a bit surprised by his level.”
Guardiola said: “We were close not to winning the game at 1-1 but I think in 90 minutes we deserved to win in terms of chances. The gap (in performance) between the first and second half was too big.”
Meanwhile, Sergio Aguero has vowed to work hard for the remainder of the season to convince City that his future remains at the club.
City’s top scorer was again on the bench against Swansear. Speaking after the game, Aguero, who has managed 113 league goals since joining in 2011, said: “Sometimes this happens.
“When you’re on the bench you have to wait for your opportunity.
“I have three months to do my best and try to help the team and we’ll see what happens with my future.”