Llorente’s lifeline
Fernando Llorente lifted Swansea out of the bottom three with the winner against Everton. Hull are now in the drop zone after losing 2-0 at home to relegated Sunderland
When Swansea’s head coach Paul Clement ran on to the pitch at the end of his team’s breathless win, his embrace of his players spoke volumes. Even as they hugged, in the directors’ box the celebration was even more extravagant.
With victory over Everton, coupled with Hull’s unexpected defeat at home by Sunderland, six years of Premier League football in South Wales looks suddenly, unexpectedly, delightfully as if it might extend to seven. This was a win that mattered.
The mood had been upbeat at the Liberty from the start. One of the biggest cheers of the season had echoed round the bars as news came through that Sunderland had gone 2-0 up on Humberside. Most of those filing into the stadium for this evening kick-off had expected to do so with their team five points adrift. Now, a win and they were out of the relegation zone.
“I said in the pre-match talk, we had an opportunity here, don’t waste it,” said Clement.
And waste it, his players did not. Clement was all too aware this represented the trickiest of fixtures: the Premier League’s leakiest defence meeting the division’s top scorer in the person of Romelu Lukaku. Clement instructed the young centre-back Alfie Mawson and his partner Federico Fernández to smother their free-scoring visitor. It worked: Lukaku’s main contribution to the first half was hugging a pitch invader who ran on to greet him.
“The two central defenders knew they were playing against a top, top forward, one who can do anything, they had to be really concentrated,” said Clement. “And they were.”
It helped their smothering that Swansea’s midfield began determined to stop the danger man receiving any kind of service. Ki Sung-yueng produced a scything sliding tackle on Kevin Miralles, Tom Carroll snapped in on Tom Davies, Leon Britton, his every intervention cheered to the echo, was everywhere full of snipe.
Initially, however, Swansea’s work seemed concentrated on destruction. Tentative in their passing, they made little headway in attack. Then after 28 minutes, Gylfi Sigurdsson drove into the Everton box and appeared to be upended.
The crowd was still on its feet apoplectic at the referee Martin Atkinson’s refusal to grant a penalty when the ball broke to Jordan Ayew on the right. Darting, tricking, seemingly overdosing on stepovers, he nonetheless bamboozled Gareth Barry and put in a pinpoint cross. As the ball drifted beyond Maarten Stekelenburg, Fernando Llorente did what he does best: he bullied above Phil Jagielka to head home.
Moments later, the young Everton full-back Mason Holgate made what
might be the block of the season when he heroically dived in to divert Mawson’s crisp shot round the post. Swansea were now propelled by a surge of confidence. Martin Olsson was barrelling forward, Ayew a tricky menace, Llorente’s hold up play exemplary. On Humberside, fatalism was taking hold.
The second half began as the first had ended with Swansea full of edge. Ayew hit the post with a volley, Britton left Idrissa Gueye in a crumpled heap, Sigurdsson’s precision was constant.
Nonetheless danger lurked, and, sensing his team were by no means out of contention, the Everton manager Ronald Koeman tried to seize back the initiative. First Ross Barkley, then Enner Valencia came on with instruction to run at the sieve that is the Swansea back line.
The longer Swansea failed to add to their lead, the more fear gripped the stands. The home fans were only too aware of the game here last month, when Swansea had led until the last against Tottenham, only to collapse in defeat. “I admit what happened against Spurs was in my mind, you don’t forget that sort of thing,” said Clement. “The difference is we had experienced that and didn’t want it to happen again.”
Still, with Everton gaining increasing territory, one goal did not seem enough, yet Swansea dropped ever deeper, attacking now solely on the break.
As the seconds crawled by, the lead seemed ever more fragile: Lukaku sent a fizzing shot into the side-netting, Valencia headed wide, Leighton Baines shot over. But, with the crowd now roaring them over the line, Swansea somehow scrambled and shuffled their way to a victory that was greeted as if the title had been won. Now, finally, the future is in their hands.