Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Swansea will look to return to winning ways this Afternoon at The Liberty Stadium as they play host to Burnley. The fact that Burnley are still yet to win away from home will obviously Paul Clement’s side cause for optimism as they aim to pull further away from the bottom three.
Last weekend saw The Swans travel to Stamford Bride and give the champions elect a fright before losing 3-1 to Antonio Conte’s Chelsea. Fernando Llorente turned the game on it’s head just before the break when leveling matters at 1-1 but the talking point was whether or not they should have been awarded a second half spot kick.
Cesar Azpilicueta will have played a get out of jail free card last Saturday in what for many was a clear cut penalty. Manager Paul Clement said after the game “Sigurdsson’s lifted it and I thought at the time Azpilicueta had handled it. Having had a second look on the video close-up it’s clearly a handball”
That was when the game was still at 1-1 but with the decision not going Swansea’s way it seemed as if their luck was once again not in against the big clubs. This lack of Penalty call can now be added to the contentious late winner that Manchester City scored at The Etihad a few weeks ago.
Conspiracy theorists will point to these and say that the big clubs always get the decisions go their way and if you are a Swansea fan you would have every right to believe that but at the same time you get the feeling that Paul Clement will not be feeling sorry for himself for too long with the focus now shifted to Today’s task in hand.
That task will be overcoming a Burnley side who have an aversion to winning away from home, Sean Dyche’s side may been incredible at Turf Moor but life on the road is very much the yin to their yang. Were it not for that home form then Burnley would be a much more precarious position.
That said they have made small steps in regards to performances away from home, that being a point at The KCom Stadium last week when up against Hull. A draw that stopped Hull from escaping the clutches of the dreaded bottom three.
Burnley currently sit 11th and looking at the amount of points they have amassed they only need three more wins to reach the promised land of 40 points and as mentioned with the form they have showed in front of their own fans that should be an easy enough task.
But what is it that makes them such a different outfit when away from Turf Moor. I guess if Sean Dyche knew the answer they would have broken this miserable streak of road results by now. I don’t think Dyche set out for the club to stay up on home results alone but that said it’s working, so perhaps there is method to the madness.
But that method will not work here at The Liberty Stadium where Swansea have won their last two league matches as they put both Southampton and Leicester to the sword. I think it’s going to be a third straight home win for Paul Clement’s men as the great escape continues.
