After surviving early scares Monk's men cruised past Lambert's beleaguered Villa side
Let's get one thing straight - despite the title of this article we thoroughly deserved the win yesterday. We were easily the better side, and had by far the best opportunities, so to claim anything other than a Swansea win would have been a just result would be, quite simply, slanderous.
We set out in the same manner as we did against Newcastle, with Pablo behind Bony, De Guzman on the right, Routledge on the left and Jonjo alongside Leon. Early signs were tetchy - Shelvey was visibly frustrated with himself after pinging a number of long passes to absolutely no-one, and Pablo's normally deft first touch eluded him on occasion. We were still the aggressors though, and any early doubts were suddenly dismissed when Routledge found Shelvey with a cute chipped ball, before he played in Wilfried Bony with a lovely through ball.
According to the letter of the law, replays would suggest Bony was marginally offside but I honestly can't remember a decision like that going in our favour for a long time, so I'm not that bothered. Bony is always looking for that kind of pass, and it's encouraging that in post-match comments the Ivorian suggested it's something he's been working on with Jonjo, so hopefully we'll see plenty more of that in future. Given our iron-thighed striker's recent form, when he ran through on Guzan there was no doubt in my mind that he was going to score, and so it was that he coolly finished past the American 'keeper into the bottom corner of the net.
His celebrations were emphatic, and luckily for me I was right in the corner he ran to. He again pointed to the floor, seemingly indicating that this is where he intends to stay (for the time being at least), and as fan appreciation has grown for Big Wilf he's visibly become more involved with the Swansea faithful. He stayed to celebrate with the fans for ages, even throwing in a little dance, before he got the crowd going again with his favourite "Come on Wilfried Bony..." chant. When Bony turned to the East Stand (which he did on a number of occasions) and implored the crowd to up the volume of his chant the impact was audibly immense. The volume, if you'll excuse a nod to Spinal Tap, went up to eleven and you can see he's currently enjoying life in SA1.
Just before that though, the whole stadium was enraptured in a minute's applause for ex-Swansea midfielder - and evil genius- Ferrie Bodde. The mercurial midfield maestro was put into an induced coma in a bid to treat the pneumonia he'd been diagnosed with (after seeking medical advice when he coughed up some blood last weekend), but thankfully for all concerned it's now been announced he's successfully come out of the coma, and is on the road to recovery. I'm man enough to admit I had tears in my eyes, and chants of "One Ferrie Bodde! There's only one Ferrie Bodde!" rang loud and true before being superseded by "Garry Monk's Barmy Army!" as the home fans implored their team to get the goal they so desperately craved.
Back to the game then, and with Bony's goal coming four minutes after the minute's applause, we strangely seemed to lose control of proceedings somewhat. Villa were finding space in the channels, and as I'd worried about pre-match the pace of Agbonlahor (as well as Weimann) threatened to hurt us down the channel. As it turned out, about a minute after I'd remarked that Pablo's first touch was almost as good as Leon's, he was unable to control a ball which did come at him quickly, and it led to Villa breaking down our left hand side.
Albrighton crossed brilliantly first time, and Agbonlahor finished with Amat easily beaten, and Ash nowhere to be seen. There was a massive gap between our centre-backs for the goal, and while Ash had gone out to try and block the cross it was pretty poor from Amat to be done so easily by someone he should really be muscling out of the way. I remember when Jordi first arrived I though he needed to hit the gym pretty hard - and in fairness he has, bulking up well - but he needs to be stronger than that.
For the rest of the half it was a tetchy affair where both teams were struggling to find the finishing touch. Bony was enjoying himself, and Routledge was once again absolutely everywhere. I don't know what Garry Monk has been putting in his cornflakes, but whatever he's done the difference is massive, and he's on fire at the moment. At one point he almost played in Bony with an exquisite outside of the boot, backspun pass but sadly he was given offside. Great invention, and when he's trying these things he's ultimately a better player as a confident player is an effective player.
One player for whom confidence is never an issue is Jonjo Shelvey. After Vlaar had hurriedly cleared (a nod of recognition must go to Monk here as he's reinstated the high pressing game we'd become used to prior to Laudrup's reign) Shelvey chested the ball down, let it bounce, and smashed a half volley up, around, and over Brad Guzan right into the top corner. I'm not literarily astute as to attempt to do justice to the goal - I'll simply say you need to see it! It's easily in with a shout for goal of the season, though with a couple of other candidates (Suarez v Norwich, Rooney vs... I forget) I do think it's unlikely he'll receive the accolade.
The goal came not massively far away from half time, and Paul Lambert accurately noted post-match that the goal changed the complexion of the match, and knocked the stuffing out of his side. Until then they were very much in with a fighting chance, but Shelvey's goal was enough to see us go into half time two-one up.
In the second half, we saw the formation switch back to Garry Monk's Midfield Diamond. For a good while I was really confused, and I'll admit to berating De Guzman a little for what I thought was a lack of support for Angel Rangel. Now that I realise he was actually operating on the left hand side of a diamond it's easier to see that he wasn't perhaps as guilty as a couple of pints of Doombar (more on that in another blog later) had led me to believe.
Thankfully, I think the overall calibre of our team is much higher than Villa's was yesterday, and that's why we ultimately won the game. We simply had too much in the final third for them, and around the seventieth minute Shelvey was again involved, drifting out to the right and putting a deep cross in to far post which found Pablo Hernandez completely unmarked. Villa are a complete shambles and this kind of defending is testament to that - there was no-one within five yards of him and he had time to steady himself, cut inside two defenders, before lashing a shot across goal and into the top corner - beating the goalkeeper and two defenders on the line. Maybe one of those guys should have been marking someone? Just an idea.
With the game now over as a contest, Monk introduced young Jay Fulton on the 80 minute mark, but if I'm honest he didn't make much of an impression. That's not to say he won't; just that he didn't see much of the ball and I can't remember him doing anything of note. You can't say the same for Marvin Emnes though! Once again the Dutchman came on late, and once again he gained us a penalty. It makes me think if we'd have had him last season, we wouldn't have gone so bloody long without getting a spot-kick - as it is, it seems his arrival from the bench currently guarantees a penalty. Watch out for that one next week!
So, Bony stepped up and went to the left this time, but it made no difference. Bang went the ball, bulge went the net, and we were 4-1 up with injury time to play. It's been a long time since we were far enough ahead for me to just enjoy the occasion, given the lingering relegation worries, but this result firmly ruled out any possibility of finishing the season in the bottom three, and left home fans grinning from ear to ear as they applauded the players who, as always, came over to clap the Swansea faithful at the final whistle.
As to why I've titled this article "let's not get ahead of ourselves", I think that while we were well worth three points we didn't control the game anywhere near as much as we, as Swansea fans, are used to. We actually finished with 47% possession, and played 367 passes to our opponents' 417. The statistics make strange reading; our passing accuracy was 77.4% to their 79.2%, and in the final third ours drops to 62.4%, whereas Villa's is 70.2. What's more, we played 12.8% of our passes long - 0.2% more than Aston Villa! Mad. We did make 28 crosses, almost as much as the Midlanders' 30, and ours were marginally more accurate at 10.7% to their 9.7%.
Aside from statistics though, when you look at the results which have secured us safety since Monk came in, we've beaten Cardiff (awful), Norwich (even more awful), Newcastle (awful but probably slightly better than the aforementioned duo, which was reflected in the tighter result) and now Villa (really awful). Believing that we're playing at a level which is acceptable for a club with top-half aspirations is very dangerous at the moment, as I do think we should be playing more through the middle, and controlling midfield more efficiently than we currently are.
There is lots more to come from this Swansea side, and yesterday Garry Monk did himself no harm in terms of securing the role of manager on a permanent basis. Personally I think it's a done deal already, and I do believe that, from what I've seen so far, Monk can motivate and organise the squad in a manner which would see us, in the long term, perform to a good standard. My worry is if we brought an outsider in it could negatively affect performance levels which still are below where we were a year/two years ago, so if we've got something which is working sufficiently to keep us in the Premier League I'd stick with that.
A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush and all that.
