JOKE ON THE SWANS AS PENALTY TURNS TIDE
STAND-UP Michael McIntyre was at White Hart Lane to watch this contest but the bigger laugh came from Swansea City’s performance.
Only there’s no-one smiling at the Liberty right now.
Yes, there was a joke of a decision from referee Jon Moss that maybe, just maybe, give the game the nudge towards its inevitable destination.
But make no mistake, from then on this was embarrassing, inept, shameful, laughable. Which is a good job because if Swansea fans didn’t laugh, they’d cry right now.
The confidence hoped to have built up from the win over Palace last weekend was obliterated by Tottenham handing out the joint-heaviest defeat of the club’s time in the Premier League.
At least those previous goal smashings had some context: one was a defeat to Liverpool a week before an appearance in the League Cup final, the other to a storming Chelsea team where Swansea actually finished strong enough to suggest it was something of a freak result.
The sad, concerning thing is, this was not. This was on the cards from the moment Swansea’s resistance went with the sound of Harry Kane’s opener being celebrated.
It was harsh on Swansea in as much that Moss bought Dele Alli’s attempt to claim contact from Kyle Naughton hook, line and sinker, and all at a critical moment in the game. Swansea had not convinced by then, but they had not conceded and may well have caught Spurs with some frustration or impatience had they gone into the break scoreless.
Ifs, buts and maybes that Swansea – unless they make drastic changes – will be mulling over from the Championship soon enough if they keep this up.
Because from that 40th minute moment you could have walked out and known that there was no way back, well before Spurs queued up to add to misery that Swansea fans are feeling that the best gags invented couldn’t cure right now.
Questions have to be raised whether Bob Bradley is in any position to cure it. Granted, much of the rot set in under Franceso Guidolin and some woeful recruitment is tough to shift, but there has been little evidence that the impact Bradley is making on the training pitch is making a jot of difference come matchday. Shipping 19 goals in seven games? You must be joking if Swansea think they can stay up if that record remains anywhere near the same.
Bradley came with a reputation for making teams well drilled but it’s just not happening. Granted, he opted to try and push for a way back into things after Heung-Min Son’s excellent strike made it two in first-half injury time with Fernando Llorente coming on. A counter within five minutes and it was done and dusted, Kane making it look easy – probably because it was. Swansea pushed high, Spurs stuck the knife deeper without even allowing a consolation goal. The visitors didn’t come close. Hugo Lloris had to come a way out of his goals to punch a cross clear just to touch the ball.
Of course, White Hart Lane has never been the happiest of places for Swansea – they have not won here ever in the league and, ahead of the club’s move to Wembley before their new stadium is ready, that record won’t change. But this was a new level of beating. Even the third-tier team of 1991 managed to score once when Spurs scored five in a cup game here.
But it was the embarrassing way in which some individuals attempted to deal with the pressure Spurs placed on them, making the most of playing their way back into form after an inconsistent run.
Naughton gave up the moment that penalty decision went against him, his pathetic attempt at a tackle in the build-up for the demoralising fourth indicative of a self-pity attitude in some of these players. Just as it was when Jordi Amat tried to play ballerina in getting the ball away from danger when it deflected off Lukasz Fabianski – the one of very few who can hold his head up. When Christian Eriksen is beating your centre-back to a headed ball in such circumstances, you know you’re in trouble.
Not that they were alone. Jefferson Montero, for all the excitement, didn’t want to know.
He’d disappeared by the time Eriksen added another in injury time, just as had most of the fight from a team supposedly scrapping for their Premier League lives. It was humiliating for fans and, no doubt, there are some in that squad that would have been hurt by it. The joke is that there isn’t enough of them. It’s a crying shame Swansea City seem to be everybody’s punchline right now.
TOTTENHAM 5 Kane 39 (pen), 50 Alli 45 Eriksen 71, 90 SWANSEA CITY 0 CHRIS WATHAN Football Correspondent chris.wathan@walesonline.co.uk