How Spurs Won: Home vs Swansea

Two second half goals were enough for Spurs to overcome Swansea and take the win on Sunday.

In any normal universe – one, say, where a supposedly rebuilding Spurs side isn’t among the favorites to win the Premier League – a performance like Swansea keeper Lukasz Fabianski should have been enough to give his side all three points.

And it would have been three points all his own. While Alberto Paloschi’s goal in the first half gave Swansea the lead, it was Fabianski who kept them there for most of the match through sheer force of will. He had little to no help from the defense in front of him. The rest of Swansea’s squad seemed content to let Spurs’ attack do whatever it pleased. The home side recorded 34 shots in total on the afternoon, fully 14 of which were in Fabianski’s goal.

That’s 14 instances in one game in which Swansea allowed their fate to be decided by one man. In 12 of those instances, Swansea’s gamble paid off. It’s in the other two where their luck ran out.

It seems like waste of words to try to describe exactly how much Swansea did wrong but let’s give it a succinct effort. In a phrase: a lot, at lease in defense. Their attacking trident of Paloschi, Gylfi Sigurdsson and André Ayew weren’t bad per se – they just lacked the service they needed to add to their first goal.

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Their biggest problem was deeper on the pitch. The defense and midfield did virtually nothing about Christian Eriksen the entire game. The Dane had subtly adjusted his position, moving deeper to allow Dele Alli to get forward whenever possible. In declining to break their attempt a rigidity to move forward and close Eriksen down, Swansea gifted him acres of space in which he orchestrated play throughout the game.

He was allowed to pass with ease, managing a best-on-the-field 59 accurate passes. He provided that outlet connection between Eric Dier in defensive midfield and the cluster of attackers operating in front of him. He even managed six shots in open play and dead ball situations, four of which were on target.

Eriksen’s deeper positioning had a more indirect benefit, however. His presence as a distribution hub in the center of Spurs’ movements encouraged the seven players often attacking with him to up their games. Only Heung-min Son and the centre-back pair managed less than two shots on the night. Every outfield player but Kevin Wimmer contributed a pass that resulted in a shot. This was as cohesive and uniform a performance as Spurs have mustered all season.

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And it needed to be, thanks to Fabianski. Even Spurs’ two goals – Nacer Chadli’s in the 69th minute and Danny Rose in the 76th – came from somewhat fluky conditions. Beforehand Fabianski had weathered a storm of well taken Eriksen free-kicks, Kane magic and threats from more or less every angle. It took a well-taken deflection of Chadli and a shot through traffic from Rose to settle the match however.

Spurs won this match by being forced to use their offense as their best source of defense. Going down in the first half was not ideal and it forced these players to work a lot harder than Mauricio Pochettino would have likely preferred, but it proved once again that overwhelming an opposition’s defense is the best way to protect your own. With so much effort focused on just containing Spurs, Swansea barely had time to figure out how they themselves might add to their lead.