Pep’s aces leagues ahead of hope that doesn’t become
Having apparently upset Jose Mourinho by playing celebratory music loudly after their win at Old Trafford, Manchester City began the night by blasting out Oasis in their dressing room before kickoff.
And if Swans boss Paul Clement had a masterplan to stop Pep Guardiola’s side turning up the volume by full-time, it didn’t work.
But then, given the supersonic nature of the visitors’ display, you wonder if any ploy would have stopped them making it an unprecedented 15 Premier League wins in a row. Four unanswered goals, three comfortable points, one side simply better in all aspects.
Champions? Definitely. Further trouble for Swansea? Maybe.
Following Crystal Palace’s win on Tuesday, Swansea stayed bottom and will have to wait until Monday before they have the chance to claw themselves back up when they head to reinvigorated Everton.
But to be frank, there was nothing new really to learn from this expected defeat as goals in the first half from the brilliant David Silva and Belgium star Kevin De Bruyne were followed up in the second by a second for Silva and a late score for Sergio Aguero.
It was a performance not short of effort, but again clearly lacking in quality. As Guardiola’s team took a while to get going, making mistakes along the way, Swansea weren’t good enough to make more of it.
Neither were they good enough to stop sloppy errors making it easy for the league leaders, long before the visitors stepped it up and underlined why they are currently in a different league. Swansea have much to do to stop that being a different division next season.
Swansea need to improve, without question, and although they cannot be judged against opposition such as this, the fact is they have left themselves in the position where they will need to beat top sides at some point. As it stands, Swansea will have to repeat last year’s second-half transformation, one that included winning away at Liverpool.
Such a shock never looked likely here.
The truth is that the game was over after around half an hour.
The frustration is that it needn’t have been, not at that stage at any rate.
And not only because of the nature of the goals conceded, but because of the encouragement there had been beforehand.
Granted, there was a justified nervousness in the cold night air every time the visitors turned up the tempo with their domineering possession.
And Lukasz Fabianski had already had to make a superb, low save as Fernandinho fizzed a volleyed shot towards the bottom corner following a half-cleared corner just seven minutes in.
The buzz of dark blue shirts was relentless when they wanted to exploit space and that sense of fear only underlined why this side is so special.
Only they weren’t showing it entirely and, instead, some City stars showed they were human as they erred under little or no pressure.
Furthermore, a few counters and a few collisions between Bony and defenders – with the super-strength striker coming off best, naturally – had started to hint at being able to worry the champions-elect.
Such as when Swansea countered from a defensive position, Roque Mesa sparking things with speed and Jordan Ayew turning an unsteady Nicolas Otamendi to force a save from Ederson.
There were even some muchmissed triangles of midfield passing, Mesa growing in confidence and influence as his appearances stack up, and suggestions that – with City being wasteful even before they got to the penalty area – this wasn’t a fait accomplis.
And then, just like that, it was, with the frustration stemming from the fact it needn’t have been as one Swansea mistake led to another and then led to the 27th minute opener.
Having looked solid in their lines, suddenly De Bruyne was allowed to float between without a white shirt near him.
A poor clearance from Mike van der Hoorn, a misplaced pass from Mesa, a lack of reaction from Tom Carroll and then a lack of awareness from two defenders for Silva to flick home unmarked from six yards. Less textbook Guardiola, more a catalogue of errors.
The deadlock broken, so too the focus. Sergio Aguero, weaving and wriggling as he does, was only denied by Fabianski saving well again and smothering further danger as Silva went to pounce.
Clement would have known his side needed to get to half time with no further damage done. They couldn’t do so, another soft one shipped. Kyle Naughton’s foul was needless, Otamendi’s run in front of Fabianski was distracting and De Bruyne’s free-kick skimmed its way into the far corner.
Swansea changed things at the break – Tammy Abraham introduced for the outclassed Carroll – but there was no chance of the script being altered.
In fact, the visitors emerged improved. Silva should have made it three 45 seconds after the restart; a wonderful one-two with Aguero followed by a wayward shot. Swansea