Forget enjoyment... the only pleasure is safety
AFTER the final whistle as the crowds filed out of the Vitality Stadium – the majority delighted by a routine home win – one Cherries’ fan turned to another as he walked by the press box and said: “What a relief, I finally feel I can enjoy the rest of the season after that.”
It is a sentiment Swansea City fans would love to be able to share, but this defeat on the south coast indicates that the final nine-game segment of this campaign is unlikely to fall under the ‘enjoyable’ bracket.
They say a week is a long time in football, and that is all it has taken for the confidence and belief Paul Clement has brought to the Welsh club to be punctured for the first time.
Wind back just over a fortnight and the Swans had just beaten Burnley in a Liberty Stadium thriller. It was five wins in eight games under Clement and a five-point margin over the bottom three.
Such was the upward trend that Swansea fans could have been forgiven for starting to contemplate a time when they would be able to utter the same words as that Bournemouth fan. That safety was all but secured and they could enjoy the final stretch with another season of top-flight football all but secured.
The defeats at Hull and here at the Vitality Stadium are setbacks no doubt and, in their own way, have actually put the impact Clement and the whole staff have made into some sort of context.
They are vastly improved under the former Bayern Munich assistant – and this was nowhere near as bad as the 3-0 loss in the reverse fixtures – but it’s worth remembering that this was a squad adrift at the foot of the table when he walked through the door, and with good reason.
In fact if, at that time, you had offered Swansea the chance to be where they currently are with nine games remaining there would have been no shortage of people ready to rip your arm off at the elbow to accept such a proposal.
As impressive as the improvements have been, it was never going to be the work of a moment to get this squad and this club back on the straight and narrow, something which Clement himself had acknowledged even after some of the euphoric celebrations of recent victories. That fact was brought sharply into focus here, as it had been at Hull, as some familiar weaknesses reared their heads at the worst possible time.
Swansea’s compact rearguard efforts have not been as readily evident over the past two games, and the sort of individual errors, which marred the first half of this campaign, played a part in all four goals conceded at the KCOM and the Vitality.
Federico Fernandez’s decision to step up – for a tackle he had little chance of making – put his partner Alfie Mawson in all manner of trouble for the opener, which went down as an own goal for the defender, just as he had for Oumar Niasse’s first on Humberside. For the second, Jack Cork lost out and Mawson found himself caught in two minds , between trying to track Benik Afobe, or poking Dan Gosling’s through ball clear, and ended up slipping as the striker went on to put the game beyond the visitors. Authority and accuracy in possession have also dipped, and the goal threat Swansea have carried was non-existent against Eddie Howe’s side. Fernando Llorente was anonymous, Tom Carroll tried to inject some energy into attacks but found little in the way of assistance. Without Gylfi Sigurdsson’s set-piece delivery and longrange ability Swansea offered very little to concern a Cherries defence who have hardly been an example in solidarity themselves.
The crumbs of comfort from a disappointing evening lie in a return to the Liberty Stadium to face fellow strugglers Middlesbrough.
Swansea have won their last three on home turf, all when the chips have been down and nothing but three points would suffice. They need to make it four against the currently managerless Teesiders.
A win there and Swansea keep matters within their own grasp. Fail to do so, and a return of less than six points from a sequence of four games deemed vital to chances of avoiding the second tier, and concerns will only rise.
Clement suggested after this defeat his players had been affected by the pressure. If that is the case, it should be a concern.