Swansea 2 - 0 LeicesterSwansea pile further pressure on relegation-threatened Leicester
Home team scorersAlfie Mawson 36
Martin Olsson 45 +1:44
There is no respite for Claudio Ranieri and his Leicester City players. The Italian has the “unwavering support” of his board, according to the statement that was released in the week, but there was no sign of a positive response on the pitch as Leicester suffered a fifth successive league defeat – something that has not happened to the reigning English champions since 1956 – on another chastening afternoon for everyone connected with the club.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha had a face like thunder as he looked on from the stands. At one point in the first half the Leicester owner could be seen slowly shaking his head as Swansea City, whose remarkable turnaround under Paul Clement continues, became the latest team to drive a nail into the champions’ coffin.
Leicester are in freefall and, on current form, on course to swap the Champions League for the Championship. Drained of confidence, woeful defensively, pedestrian in midfield and toothless up front, Ranieri’s team are sleepwalking towards the second tier.
There is so much wrong that it is difficult to know where to start, with so many damning statistics painting such a bleak picture of how things have unravelled for the fairytale team. Leicester are the only club in the top four divisions to have failed to have scored a league goal this year and they have not won away from home in the top flight this season.
The biggest concern of all for Leicester supporters must be that there is not the slightest hint that they are capable of emerging from this dreadful run. Ranieri suggested that his next move will be a drastic one after he admitted he was guilty of remaining too loyal to the players who led the club to the Premier League title, yet his options are limited when it comes to shaking up things. It was all the sort of talk that felt like the last roll of the dice.
The days and weeks ahead do not offer much encouragement. Leicester have an awkward trip to Millwall on Saturday in the FA Cup fifth round and four days later travel to Spain to take on Sevilla in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. By the time they face Liverpool, in their next Premier League match on 27 February, Leicester could well be in the relegation zone, with this latest defeat leaving them only one place and one point above the bottom three.
Swansea, in contrast, are travelling at pace in the opposite direction and it has been extraordinary to witness the way their fortunes have changed since Clement took over as manager. They had 12 points from 19 games and were anchored to the foot of the table when he was appointed. Six matches later and Swansea have doubled their points tally, climbing above Leicester and up to 15th place in the process.
The astute signings in the January transfer window have helped, yet that should take nothing away from the job Clement has done and his satisfaction was there for all to see at the final whistle as he marched on to the pitch, clenching his fist in front of the jubilant Swansea supporters.
Alfie Mawson, who was outstanding throughout and is looking more and more impressive with every performance, opened the scoring with an exquisite volley in the 36th minute. Robert Huth’s clearance from Gylfi Sigurdsson’s free-kick lacked distance and Federico Fernández headed back across goal to his central defensive partner, who showed superb technique to strike the ball so sweetly past Kasper Schmeichel.
Up until that point the game had been a slow-burner, yet Swansea now had one foot on Leicester’s throat and they were not going to take a step back.
Martin Olsson, one of last month’s new recruits, added a second goal in first-half injury time, when the left-back ran on to a wonderful reverse pass from Sigurdsson, at the end of a lovely move involving Fernando Llorente and Tom Carroll, to beat Schmeichel inside his near post.
Ranieri reacted by making two changes at the interval, including bringing on Islam Slimani to play alongside Jamie Vardy. Slimani should have pulled a goal back just after the hour mark but the Algerian, after being released by Riyad Mahrez and running clear on goal, was denied by Lukasz Fabianski, who smothered the striker’s low shot. Slimani just failed to get his head to another chance and when Vardy sliced high and wide later on it kind of summed up Leicester’s day as well as their season.
For Swansea and Clement, however, everything is looking up. “It was a very pleasing afternoon,” the Swansea manager said. “I thought we well deserved the victory. The goal just before the end of the first half gave us a lot of confidence but 2-0 is never a nice scoreline. I didn’t feel comfortable at any moment. Maybe the players felt more comfortable than me because they really saw it out in a professional manner. But it’s only a small step in what is ultimately our objective, which is to sustain playing at this level. There’s still a lot to be done.”
Guardian
