Saturday 25^th August 2012 – 12.45pm kick off

Liberty Stadium, Swansea

Swansea City vs. West Ham United

Starting Line Up:

SWANSEA CITY: Vorm, Rangel, Chico, Williams, Taylor, Britton, de Guzman, Michu, Dyer, Routledge, Graham. Subs: Tremmel, Tate, Moore, Dobbie, Agustien, Gower, Davies.

WEST HAM UNITED: Jaaskelainen, Demel, Collins, Reid, McCartney, Diame, Noble, Nolan, Tomkins, Jarvis, Cole. Subs: Henderson, Taylor, O’Brien, Diarra, Vaz Te, Maiga, Maynard.

Match Report:

Swansea City returned to the top of the Premier League on Saturday after hammering West Ham 3-0 at the Liberty Stadium.

Goals from Angel Rangel, Michu and Danny Graham gave the Swans a confident victory over the newly promoted Hammers.

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce, named a new record by signing Matt Jarvis in the starting team for the league clash, just 24 hours after the winger completed his £10.75m move from Wolves. Ricardo Vaz Te’s failure to impress in the opening day win against Aston Villa, saw him demoted to the substitute’s bench alongside Matt Taylor, with Jarvis and James Tomkins taking their positions on the pitch.

As expected, Swansea City named an unchanged starting line up for this game, after their opening day 5-0 smashing of QPR, with Spanish star Michu looking to add to the two goals he scored on his debut. Wantaway striker Scott Sinclair has found himself dropped to the reserves over the past few days, as speculation linking him with a move to champions Manchester City is starting to gain pace, with young left back, Ben Davies being selected for a space on the bench. Swansea were without their new £5.5m record signing Ki Sung-Yeung from Celtic who was not able to be registered in time for the early lunchtime kick off.

It was the chance for new Swansea manager, Michael Laudrup, to manage his club at the Liberty Stadium for the first time, as well as being the first time West Ham had ever made a trip to Swansea’s current home ground.

Both teams headed into the game confident from their opening day victories, but the final score ended up showing the difference in class between the newly promoted Hammers and the overachievers of the Premier League last season.

It was West Ham that started more energetically, looking most likely to grab the early lead. Winger Matt Jarvis, who was statistically the best winger in the Premier League last season, was causing Swans’ fullback Angel Rangel trouble. However, his deep crosses were being collected easily by Dutch keepers Michel Vorm.

As the game settled, Swansea started to knock the ball around the pitch, with their small and quick players like Nathan Dyer and Jonathan de Guzman dominating the midfield battle, creating chances for attackers, Michu and Graham.

It was West Ham’s defence, however, that gifted the lead to the hosts, when some miscommunication between George McCartney and Matt Jarvis gave Rangel space in the penalty area. The right back’s attempted cut back appeared to end up more as a shot to the back post, with Jussi Jaaskelainen failing to catch the ball and the Hammers found themselves a goal behind.

West Ham let themselves down in defence once again for Swansea’s second goal, when summer signing, James Collins, decided to play the ball back to Jaaskelainen. As Collins collected the ball inside his own half and turned to pass back, he failed to connect with the ball properly and under hit the pass back to his goalkeeper, which allowed Michu the chance to slot the ball past the Hammer’s keeper into the bottom left hand corner of the goal.

After gifting a two goal lead to their opponents, it was West Ham that finished the first half on top. A three corner sequence in the final stages of the half saw the Hammers go close to scoring on all three occasions, with Collins and Tomkins having efforts cleared off the line.

As the second half began, it was clear that West Ham were not going to be able to take anything from this game, and it was Swansea’s game to kill. Some confident play from the South Wales team saw them take 70% of the possession in the first 10 minutes of the second half, with West Ham chasing shadows.

The game was completely over on 64 minutes, when Danny Graham finished off a smart Swans’ move by heading in from a cross, by winger Wayne Routledge.

The Hammers had little to offer in reply after Swansea’s third goal, and the rest of the game saw the hosts passing the ball around in space, West Ham were clearly ready to get on the coach and head back to East London.

The win for Swansea puts them back to the top of the Premier League table after two games, scoring eight goals and yet to concede, whereas West Ham sit eighth until after the 3pm kick offs around the country. Swansea host nPower Championship side, Barnsley, in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday, before facing Sunderland in the Premier League at home next Saturday. West Ham, however, will face nPower League Two side Crewe Alexandra at home on Tuesday night in the Capital One Cup, before another Sky Sports lunch time kick off next Saturday at Upton Park against London rivals, Fulham.

MAN OF THE MATCH

The official Sky Sports man of the match award was given to tricky Swansea winger Nathan Dyer for today’s early kick off league match. Dyer spent the majority of the match showing his skill and speed to beat his opponents, whilst also being involved in setting up chances for his team mates when Rangel and Graham scored. Solid game from the young English winger.