They came, they saw, and while perhaps they didn’t conquer, they certainly intend to stay around for a while.
Many were somewhat scathing of the chances of both – or even either – Norwich and Swansea avoiding relegation, indeed in my season preview I tipped both for the drop. Norwich’s leaky defence and rapid rise made them prime candidates and the fact that Swansea had only come up through the play-offs and didn’t have anyone likely to consistently grab them goals in the Premier League had people doubting their chances as well. Nearly a third of the way through the season, however, and the two clubs are making those predictions look foolish.
To be fair, predictions that they would struggle were not the most outrageous of calls made this summer. Norwich, having won back-to-back promotions from League One and the Championship were perhaps given less chance, despite the fact that Paul Lambert has greatly impressed in his short managerial career. They conceded 58 league goals during the 2010-11 season, the most of any side finishing in the top six. With that area of the side barely rectified over the summer months, and with few players that fans who purely focus on the Premier League would recognise, it is understandable that they weren’t given much of a chance.
Swansea, on the other hand, and Scott Sinclair aside, seemed somewhat underwhelming. When their big summer signings were Wayne Routledge and Danny Graham, the impression that they were merely a Championship club on a year long holiday wasn’t entirely put to bed. The fact that only three of the previous nine winners of the play-offs had gone on to avoid an immediate return to the second tier was not helpful either.
Both have somewhat confounded expectations, however. With 11 games played Norwich sit ninth with Swansea tenth, goal difference the only thing separating them. With Queens Park Rangers sitting 11th, it has been something of a bright start for the three promoted sides.
In Swansea’s case, it might have been known that Brendan Rodgers had them playing a brand of possession based football that was very easy on the eye, but few who hadn’t seen them play would have expected Joe Allen and Leon Britton to be able to each boast over 90% pass completion rates in their season so far. As a team Swansea have a pass completion rate of 85% this season which, of the teams ahead of them in the league, is bettered by only Chelsea and Manchester City (both at 86%) and level with the side long considered the passing team in the league, Arsenal.
There have been flippant remarks referring to Swansea as the ‘Barcelona of Wales’, but the manner in which they use possession as a defensive tactic – if the opposition don’t have the ball, they can’t score – does bare certain hallmarks of the Spanish giants. At the Liberty Stadium it is desperately hard to get the ball off Rodgers side, and as a consequence their are unbeaten on their own turf, having conceded just a solitary goal.
That point also brings us onto the other reason behind their success. Michel Vorm. Signed from Utrecht in the summer, for a fee reported to be in the region of £1.5M, Vorm has gone about establishing himself as one of the most in form goalkeepers in the league. There have been a number of moments this season when the Swansea defence have had reason to thank their Dutch Superman, none less than last week’s trip to Anfield when his reactions were barely believably quick to tip Glen Johnson’s volley over the bar in injury time.
Norwich have gone about their game in a fairly different manner, however. Still considered a team that plays good football, and in Wes Hoolahan they have a player very capable on the ball, there is no doubt that they play a faster and more direct game. While Swansea have the significantly higher pass completion of the two sides, Norwich have made more ‘final third entries’ (925 to Swansea’s 577) and a greater percentage of the Canaries’ passes come in the attacking half of the pitch (67.65%, as opposed to the 47.82% managed by the Swans).
All this attacking intent has led to Norwich having more shots on goal than Swansea, and to scoring four more goals than their Welsh counterparts, though likewise they have been leakier in defence. One thing they have in common, however, is an excellent home record. Norwich have lost just once at Carrow Road and if the cliché that it is home form which matters most to a promoted team’s chances of survival, then both sides are going about things in the right manner.
There are warning bells to be sounded yet, however. Both Blackpool and Hull began their debut Premier League seasons in stunning fashion before falling away horribly in the second half of the season. While Hull did scrape survival, it was merely a temporary stay of execution as they finally fell in the following campaign, and Blackpool, for all their enterprising and entertaining football, failed to escape the trapdoor at the first attempt. Put simply, any element of surprise that the teams new to the division had will have evaporated after Christmas, sides facing them will have a much greater knowledge of how they play and therefore how to beat them, and there are undoubtedly bumpy days ahead.
Whatever the outcome of their season though, both Norwich and Swansea should be praised for the enjoyment they have brought to their campaign. For too long promotion had sent teams into a spiral of worry and the process of winning survival was seen as a chore to be endured. Like Blackpool and Burnley before them, however, both the Canaries and the Swans have managed to marry the professionalism of doing their job and achieving the best they can for the club with a sense of adventure, and with any luck they’ll be flying high through the Premier League for years to come.
Photo courtesy of Catatan Bola
As well as being a regular contributor to The Football Project, Simon is editor of world football blog Lovely Left Foot.
