Sigurdsson can’t save the Swans this time... and now they must fight for survival
WITH less than four minutes to go, Gylfi Sigurdsson stands over the ball. The Liberty Stadium is a mixture of hushed anticipation and noisy faith in their free-kick specialist.
Some are convinced this is the moment Swansea City will save themselves.
As the ball deflects wide – which, after replays, may have been done so with the help of a Middlesbrough hand – so a collective sigh comes. There might not have been an air of resignation, but there was definitely a dose of reality served about this bid for survival.
It was there in that moment. The player who has done more than most to give Swansea a fighting chance to stay in the Premier League couldn’t do it on this occasion, this game where it needed to happen.
But it didn’t happen and as the thousands poured out into the South Wales sunshine, the mood was an overcast one, one of wondering whether it will happen now for Swansea in this battle.
The odds are against them, even if the point moved them away from Hull. How the Tigers – purring now under Marco Silva – will be sharpening their claws as they welcome Middlesbrough on Wednesday, the same night Swansea must find a way of beating title-chasing Tottenham.
A surprise success over Spurs – and goodness knows Swansea are due one in the Premier League – is not beyond comprehension, but it sums up the scale of the task now facing Paul Clement’s side. The room for error has been removed almost completely.
Of course it is not over and, in reality, this was always likely to be a fight that would go into its twelfth and final round on May 21 when West Brom are in town.
But it is one that Swansea will have to start landing knock-out punches rather than the jabs that never really landed here. As improved as Swansea have been in the main under Clement, judges scorecards don’t exist.
The lack of Fernando Llorente didn’t help. Clement says he was missing after an ankle knock – though there are some suggestions of it being another dead leg. Regardless, he was missed simply because the focal point and the target for the continuous crosses from space found out wide was not there.
Jordan Ayew was game but never threatened, yet Clement persisted with him until the bitter end.
The manager claimed that he felt a goal was coming and perhaps he could feel justified. On another day Sigurdsson’s free-kick sails in, or the suggestion of the block by the arm of Adam Forshaw results in a penalty. Perhaps Alfie Mawson’s header soon after is not cleared by Marten de Roon or Leroy Fer spins and scores instead of being denied in the dying stages. But it didn’t happen.
As Swansea went stale, as they became more and more nervous, there wasn’t any movement from the bench. Even in the final moments, would not a introduction of Borja Baston sparked something? He has done little to show why he is Swansea’s record signing so far, but football is beyond logic at times. The narrative was there, just as it could have been for Oli McBurnie, the rookie who promises much and is a cocksure goalscorer at age-grade. The crowd called for Jefferson Montero and if his introduction might not have provided a bit of magic, at least it would have raised the noise levels and unsettled the visitors. On such little details seasons can swing.
Clement spoke about the nerves and the tension affecting supporters and players alike, but you couldn’t help wondering on this occasion if it also affected him.
More was needed from Swansea but it didn’t happen. They played well up until the final third, some good urgency and tempo with Martin Olsson welcomed back as he added zip and a left-sided option.
They were rarely threatened by Middlesbrough’s counters. Adama Traore panicked whenever he picked up the ball, but often did so from so deep it could be closed down before it hurt. Indeed, not
once
did Boro manage an attempt on target, though Rudy Gestede – who could have easily have been sent off for a second bookable studs-up challenge minutes earlier – could have scored with a late far-post header.
It would have been harsh on Swansea, who stayed on the front foot for the majority of the match yet now find themselves on the back foot and without much momentum going into these final eight games.
Though Swansea as a club has long had a habit of never doing things the easy way, of often leaving it late, as Sigurdsson’s free-kick chance was denied, it was difficult to shake that this will be harder than most challenges they have faced.
After all, if you are going to take one point from four clashes with Hull and Boro – the two sides they are trying to condemn to the Championship – you are going to have to pick up points against tougher opposition. Tottenham, West Ham and Watford – the latter two away from home – are the first three of those.
The room for error is well and truly gone and the time for waiting for others to slip up is over.
Swansea now have to seize the initiative and make it happen themselves, rather than waiting for it to happen.
It is not over but, just as those faces showed when that 86th minute passed, time is running out for Swansea City to save themselves.