Can Swansea's returning rhythm help them overcome Arsenal?

We are now more than a third of the way through the Premier League season, with last year’s new boys Swansea City currently sitting just a single point behind Arsenal.

The Welsh side will travel to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday off the back of an impressive 3-1 home win over in-form West Brom.  In his post-match interview, Swans manager Michael Laurdrup praised the performance of his players, claiming that they were a joy to watch during their midweek victory.

Swansea’s elegant style of play has become a notable feature since their first season in the Premier League last year.  The flowing football that the side often displays was the focus of former manager Brendan Rodgers, who is now trying to implement this strategy at Liverpool.  Whilst not bearing much fruit for the Reds at the moment, the Anfield faithful remain hopeful that Rodgers’ methods will soon achieve the results they intend to.

Despite being many pundits’ favourite to go down, Swansea managed a very respectable 11^th-placed finish in their maiden Premier League campaign.  At the moment, the Swans are showing few signs of second season syndrome, where clubs tend to struggle after surviving one year in the top flight.  Perhaps that is because, although it may have been their aim after first achieving promotion, avoiding the drop was not a main concern throughout their debut season.

Brendan Rodgers and Michael Laudrup may have helped to centre Swansea’s play around passing and possession, but Arsene Wenger has been in the game for much longer.  Despite a recent lack of trophies, the French manager installed a similar way of playing at Arsenal several years ago, which gained the Gunners a reputation for being an enjoyable to team to watch.

It is unlikely that there will be too much hoofing of a football when the two sides meet on Saturday, where hopefully Arsenal and Swansea can both show exactly why it is known as the beautiful game.

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