It’s the cold, hard, bitter truth: The 2013-14 season of the English Premier League hasn’t been very kind to the Swansea City Association Football Club.
The Swans are winless in nine consecutive league games so far, punctuating the club’s unfortunate freefall toward the bottom of the league’s form table.
Embattled Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup should definitely hope for a speedy and successful return to form for three of his previously injured players: midfielder Roland Lamah (saddled with an abductor strain) and defender Dwight Tiendalli (taken down with a hamstring injury).
These returns are even more crucial in the face of an absolutely horrific injury list that will severely handicap Laudrup’s team selection. Defensive midfielder Jose Canas suffered ankle ligament damage earlier this year in a 2-0 loss to Manchester United on January 12.
Winger Pablo Hernandez was forced to sit at the sidelines after a hamstring injury forced him to limp off the pitch after just 10 minutes in a game against Manchester City. Striker and attacking midfielder Michu (also known as Miguel Perez Cuesta) is still recovering from an ankle injury and has not been featured since the game against Norwich City on December 15, 2013.
It’s very unfortunate, then, that this winless streak didn’t stop as Tottenham edged out the Swans 3-1 at their own home ground, the Liberty Stadium in South Wales, on Sunday, January 19, 2014.
Ivorian striker Wilfried Bony scored a 25-yard drive for the Swans but Bony failed to steer a header goalwards after swiftly sneaking in behind the defence, and his subsequent pass to Wayne Routledge was just a bit too light as the winger was clear on goal. Tottenham made the Swans pay for their missed chances as Togo’s Emmanuel Adebayor scored two crucial goals for the Spurs: one in the 34th minute and the other in the 70th after Swansea’s Chico Flores had scored an own goal.
This segues into another worrying factoid: the Swans have averaged just 0.9 points per game at home, winning just two of their last 15. The Spurs also carry a virtually spotless record against Swansea since the Swans’ promotion to the Premier League in 2011 with a current tally of five victories, one draw and no defeats. Freelance sports journalist and Betfair contributor Lewis Jones notes that a Tottenham win traded at 2.44, a Swansea win at 3.25, while the draw had a 3.45 chance.
Of course, even with a particularly injury-riddled squad, Swansea City’s resilience promises to shine through in their next three Premier League games. Strong, gritty wins against Fulham, West Ham and Cardiff City will be crucial to the Swans’ hopes of Premier League survival.