Global Glorification Swansea City FC welcomed Arsenal FC I have watched Swansea City and analysed them every week, and I am forever singing their praises, telling people at work and elsewhere, what an incredible outfit they really are. The appraisals are usually shrugged off as, 'yes they are good, but not THAT good'. This was the chance for Swansea to show the world how good they really are and increase their status as a side to be reckoned with. By all accounts and stats they out-shone Arsenal, beating them at their own game. Special Statistics Swansea completed 424 out of 527 passes while Arsenal completed 337 out of 428 passes (Swansea completed almost as many passes as Arsenal attempted in the whole game). This means that Swansea attempted 6 passes a minute and 10 passes for every minute they were in possession. The ball was actually in play for an incredible 69 minutes, normally this is around the 50 minute mark, rarely going above 60 minutes. Therefore Swansea had the ball for 39 minutes and attempted 13 passes per minute (over 1 pass every 5 seconds). Also the ground passes completed by Swansea, excluding headers, high passes and throw-ins, totalled 380. Nine years to this weekend, Swansea City were five points behind Exeter City at the bottom of the Football League. Now they are the 4th highest ranked team in the Premier League possession charts, and the 6th most accurately passing side in Europe (ahead of Manchester United and Arsenal); whilst sitting 10th in the Premier League. Every week I tell people they have to watch Swansea play, and now they know why that is! - Manraj Manraj - MSc Sports Performance analysis. BSc Astrophysics. Opta International, European & Official Swansea FC analyst.
