THE PREMIER LEAGUE was back and we had all the action as Swansea hosted Manchester United with Louis van Gaal’s men hoping to close the gap to second place Manchester City.
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Hello and welcome to our coverage of this afternoon’s clash of Swansea City and Manchester United.
The team news is in and Ander Herrera will start his first game for the visitors in the league since 2 December.
However, there’s no place for Radamel Falcao in the starting XI and the Colombian must settle for a place on the bench.
The teams in full:
Swansea City: Fabianski, Naughton, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor, Cork, Shelvey, Ki, Sigurdsson, Routledge, Gomis.
Subs: Tremmel, Rangel, Amat, Britton, Montero, Emnes, Oliveira.
Manchester United: De Gea, McNair, Jones, Rojo, Shaw, Blind, Fellaini, Herrera, Di Maria, Rooney, Van Persie.
Subs: Valdes, Smalling, Januzaj, Mata, Valencia, Young, Falcao
Opinion is divided over the inclusion of Fellaini it seems.
In favour:
Against:
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If United and Swansea doesn’t float your boat, be sure to keep an eye on the home page where we’ll have the best of the in-game action from all today’s 3pm kick-offs or check out our Score Centre:
Setanta have a United cult hero in the studio alongside Matt Holland today. He’s not impressed with LVG’s assertion that his former side are the best team in the league, however.
For what it’s worth, RVP is generally available at 6/4 for anytime goalscorer:
Gary Monk has just told Setanta he thinks United have weaknesses Swansea can exploit.
All I kept thinking was ‘why did he cut his hair after starring in Dodgeball’ though.
And United get the game under way through Rooney and Van Persie.
For those playing ‘what formation is LVG going with’ bingo, United start with Rooney and RVP up front and Fellaini – who has given away the game’s first free kick – just behind in the hole.
Blind is in the quarterback role with Di Maria to his left and Herrera to his right.
For Swansea, it looks like they’re playing three in midfield with Shelvey sitting deep.
The hosts win the game’s first corner.
Wow, Herrera clears off the line for United.
A free header for Gomis who must have been sure he’d scored the opener.
Swansea win another corner and they’ve definitely started the brighter of the two sides here in the Liberty Stadium.
AGAIN Gomis has a free header but this time he can’t keep it down and it sails harmlessly over.
United have a free out to the right. Di Maria and Rooney stand over it and the Argentinian’s cross causes some confusion in the Swansea area.
From a ridiculously tight angle, Robin Van Persie hits the crossbar before the ball goes wide.
That’s better from the visitors.
Routledge finds himself in acres of space in the United penalty area but his shot is tame and De Gea makes a really comfortable save.
Had his shot gone either side of the Spaniard, he might have given Swansea the lead.
A half chance for Rooney under pressure from Ashley Williams is easily dealt with by Fabianski.
Down the other end, Swansea have their third corner, however, working the short one doesn’t pay dividends for the hosts and United have a goal kick.
United have enjoyed a bit more possession over the past five minutes but without really doing anything with hit.
Swansea, to their credit, are doing a good job of crowding the midfield, forcing the visitors to take them on down the wings, something they’re not doing very well so far.
Starting his first game since 2 December, Ander Herrera finishes off United’s best passage of play and, somewhat against the run of play, the visitors have the lead.
And it’s 1-1 within two minutes.
United fall asleep at a free kick and Ki scores his second goal against LVG’s men this season.
Well that escalated quickly.
1’58″ between the goals adding more fuel to the cliché fire that you’re at your most vulnerable just after scoring.
It’s worth noting United have conceded nearly 50% of their Premier League goals this season from set-pieces and this was another.
Apart from the goal, United haven’t offered much in this game.
Fellaini doesn’t really seem to know where he’s meant to be playing and Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie have been virtually anonymous.
The whistle goes and it is 1-1 at the break between Swansea and Manchester United
The home side have been decent, United below par. Apart from a two minutes spell, there has not been a huge amount to write home about for either side.
Hopefully the second half will offer an improvement.
Here are the rest of the half time scores from the 3pm kick offs, via our Score Centre:
Paddy McNair has been sacrificed for Manchester United with Antonio Valencia coming on in his place.
It’s tough on McNair who was playing out of position in the opening period but it is an attacking change from LVG.
Of course, McNair was not literally sacrificed, even Van Gaal doesn’t go that far I think.
His replacement, Valencia, has already gone into Neil Swarbrick’s notebook.
Another chance for Ki Sung-Yeung as confusion reigns in the United area. David De Gea comes to the rescue for the visitors though.
Not much to report over the last five minutes. Fellaini having one of these days for United up until now.
The visitors make their second substitution of the game with Ashley Young coming on for Luke Shaw.
Van Gaal has clearly decided that nothing is happening through the middle and has brought Young and Valencia on as raiding full backs.
At least, I think that’s the plan. With LVG you never really know.
Corner to United comes to nothing.
In fairness, United have looked a lot livelier since Young came on and has forced a number of corner.
Angel Di Maria delivers by far his best set-piece of the day but Rojo gets right underneath it and it sails high into the stands.
Much, much better from United since the introduction of Young. They’ve been camped in the Swansea half for pretty much the last five minutes.
However, while they’re creating a number of half-chances, there’s been very little in the way of clear cut opportunities.
Out of nothing Jonjo Shelvey fires home from 30-yards but Gomis definitely got a touch as it travelled towards David De Gea leaving the United keeper stranded.
This is the goal that has put Swansea into the lead. Gomis will definitely be claiming it.
In fairness, they’re only playing well since half-time but it’s a relatively fair point:
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A penny for this man’s thoughts right now:
Gary Monk looks delighted with how this is going. Just minutes away from taking six points off Manchester United this season.
Peep. Peep. Peep.
The referee blows the final whistle and Swansea have won 2-1 completing a league double over Manchester United.
United lose for the second time in six Premier League games while Swansea pick up all three points for just the second time in same number of outings.
An odd game to try and decipher as both teams were poor in the first half but, after the introduction of Ashley Young in particular, the visitors definitely dominated proceedings after the break.
However, it’s Swansea who claimed the second crucial goal and Gomis will definitely be looking for his scoring bonus this evening.
But that’s it from me. Thanks as always for joining in. We’ll have reports from all of today’s 3pm kick offs up very soon.
