Swansea City 1 – 1 Crystal Palace

Review by William George Eldridge

With the Welsh weather wickedly crashing down on the Swansea turf, the two Premiership sides played out a game which 2 months ago would have been a top vs. bottom clash. Alas, no points this year and a run of 5 successive defeats, this was more of a close call than previously imagined.

Palace lined up with the returning Cabaye and Mutch in for the injured duo of McArthur and Puncheon, while Adebayor made his first start in place of the thus far ineffective Frazier Campbell. Pardew, despite variable injuries and suspensions was able to play a side that on paper looked a strong starting eleven.

However, it was the home side which started the brighter and they took a deserved lead in the 13th minute through Sigurdsson’s free-kick. The Icelandic midfielder, who was rumoured to once be a Palace target, won the set-piece himself after being fouled by Adebayor before curling one into Wayne Hennessey’s bottom left-hand corner. Swansea continued to dominate and Alberto Paloschi, making his full debut for Swansea, impressed as a lone striker, providing a useful outlet for his side as well as linking up well with Sigurdsson and Wayne Routledge in attack.

Despite Swansea’s dominance throughout the first half and an expected second goal to follow, it instead fell to the visitors not long after the half time whistle. The equaliser from Scott Dann, three minutes after the interval served as a welcomed present for the Palace faithful, with goals coming few and far between of late. A corner crossed in by Cabaye found Dann, who beat Neil Taylor to the ball, to bring the scores level. 1-1, and all to play for.

A battling display from both sides followed, with Swansea arguably having the better of the play, especially in the last ten minutes of the match. However, it was an all score draw as the referee blew his final whistle, with both teams accepting a point, a result marginally better for the Eagles, who stopped their losing run, and kept away from Swansea’s grasp.

Source: casino.com