Swansea 1 City 2
Report by Kate Thompson
It was a difficult journey for City fans because of problems caused by storm Brian; some were still coming in after half-time, by which time City were 2-0 up.
The only change from Monday’s game was Okazaki for Ineacho, a change that most fans would applaud after the latter’s poor performance against West Brom. Appleton, as caretaker manager, reverted to the 4-4-2 favoured by Leicester, despite the promising signs from the change to three at the back introduced by Shakespeare in his last match. I am one of the fans who is unhappy with Craig’s sacking: I believe he should have been given more time, but sadly if a team loses or draws a few matches, the writing is on the wall. Shakespeare himself said that every Premier League manager is only four matches away from the sack.
What was different was the way City started the game, at the speed and urgency which we enjoyed in the title-winning season. The players gave Swansea no time and, but for Fabianski, would have been out of sight before half-time.
What was especially pleasing were the signs that Mahrez is getting back to the player he was two seasons ago and he was involved in both goals. The City fans thought he had scored the first one, as it was the other end from where we were sitting, but watching it later we realised that it was an own goal. It was Riyad’s pass however, that led to this result.
For both goals, the Swansea players were complaining but it was shown that the referee, Michael Oliver, and his two assistants got it spot on both times. The whole ball did not go out of play before Riyad’s cross for the first goal and Albrighton’s pass found the same player just onside, before a delightful pass for Okazaki to score an easy goal.
Swansea showed little signs of getting anything out of the game and when City scored again just after half-time, it looked more a case of how many they would score. When Mawson scored a good goal in the 56th minute, the nerves started to kick in again, but fortunately there were no further goals from Swansea.
Many fans thought they had equalised midway through the second half, but the ball found the side netting instead. City should have had a third goal when Mahrez played in Vardy but yet again Fabianski made an excellent save from our main man.
All the players had a solid game and deserved the win. Most people’s man of the match was Iborra; he seemed to have time to make the perfect pass and has clearly come to terms with the different style of the English game. This also meant that Ndidi had a better game than recently. Andy King came on for Okazaki in the 68th minute and had a good cameo appearance, playing higher up than he has done recently. The other substitute was Gray for Mahrez in the 87th minute.
For once, there were no weak links in the team and every player did well. Long may it last!
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation