Some startling figures have been highlighted recently courtesy of EA Sports. And most of them are related to Swansea City. Since their 3-2 victory over Arsenal – a club who, for the past decade have been hailed as the ‘pass masters’ – everyone, it seems, cannot get enough of the Swans. Incredibly, for a team who were bottom of the Football League this time nine years ago and only promoted to the ‘Promised Land’ of the Barclaycard Premiership last May, they are in the top ten for many forms of passing accuracy; not something that one would associate with a side that have just come from such humble positions.
So far this season, they are sixth in the whole of Europe for top passing accuracy with a rate of 85.2%; seventh for most accurate passes per game; and boast a player that has the highest rate for passing accuracy in Leon Britton with 93.3% of his passes successfully reaching a team-mate. Fellow Swan, Joe Allen, lies in seventh place out of all the players plying their trade in Europe alongside the likes Xavi, Sergio Busquest, Thiago, Philipp Lahm and Yaya Toure.
This is why, in my opinion, they are the most exciting side in the Premiership despite a cluster of 0-0 draws this season. It is the quality that they already possess and the potential of what they can do with it that is so intriguing. In simple terms, if you keep the ball well, that means there is less chance of the opposition punishing you as they can do nothing in that realm until they get the ball themselves, which gives them a good chance of establishing themselves in the top-flight and maybe even Europe.
They may only be tenth place and nine points clear of the drop zone with the season just over halfway through (although they would have taken that at the beginning of the campaign), but I am sure that, with the style of football they play – and it being very suited to the continental model – they could very well attract some top players knowing that Brendan Rodgers’s side can play to the strength of them. In their current state, there is every chance that Swansea could overtake the likes of Everton, Stoke City and now Newcastle United in striving to break into the top five or six of the Premiership.
I must confess that I was fairly ignorant of the Welsh side until last August. I watched them in last year’s play-off final against Reading and had heard a lot about their passing game and how unique they were to the second tier of English football, but it was not until they played their first game of the campaign against Manchester City that I really sat up and took notice.
Despite losing 4-0, I was mightily impressed with them, particularly Nathan Dyer (who I put in my Fantasy Football team straight away) and goalkeeper, Michel Vorm, who performed extraordinarily to make sure that the result didn’t turn into an absolute rout.