Year on year teams promoted to the top division add their own unique flavor to it. Some are timid, some gritty whereas some are just travelers in time. Fortunately though, in recent times there have been some who have been brave and adventurous (Southampton 2012/2013), some who have been kinky (Blackpool 2010/2011(read football porn) and some who have left a left everyone wanting for more (Swansea City 2011/12).

Swansea City 2011/12, for lack of better words, can best be described as ‘Poor Man’s Barcelona’. Brendon Rodgers set out to continue ex – manager Roberto Martinez’ project who had created a team inspired by Barcelona’s tiki-taka approach combining short passing with intense pressing high up the pitch consisting primarily of British players. Rodgers took up the charge in the 2010/2011 season following the departure of Portuguese manager Sousa who had succeeded Martinez.

Although the final league standing (11th) might suggest otherwise, Swansea did defeat Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal at the Liberty Stadium (More on the Arsenal game later). In all these 3 victories at the Liberty Stadium, Swansea also won the possession battle against their opponents, registering a 62.5% – 37.5% domination against Liverpool. Promisingly, Swansea finished 3rd highest in the division in terms of average possession per match (58%); behind Arsenal (60.2%) and Manchester City (58.2%) and 2nd in terms of passing accuracy which was behind only Manchester City (85.9%) with 85.7% of attempted passes completed.

Swansea kicked off their campaign with a trip to the newly named Etihad Stadium. A glance through the record books reveals a routine 4 – 0 victory for the Blues. However, on a closer look, the Swans dominated the possession 58% – 42% and made City sweat out for the breakthrough. Only City’s record signing – Sergio Aguero’s 30 minute power – packed substitute appearance, scoring 2 goals and assisting a further for David Silva, made the City victory impressive. However, what really stood out in the match was the performance of the new Swansea signing – the Dutch goalkeeper, Michel Vorm. Vorm saved 11 shots on target in the match from the City attackers. Vorm showed he is an typical modern day goalkeeper comfortable with the ball both in his hands and at his feet. He touched the ball a total of 76 times in the match, more than twice his counterpart Hart. Vorm’s performances were so impressive throughout the season (13 clean sheets) that he won three awards at the club’s end of season awards – Supporters Player of the Year, Players’ Player of the Year and the Away Player award.

As the season progressed, Rodgers and his team slowly and steadily started stamping its philosophy on the Premier League. The proponents of this philosophy on the pitch were Swansea City midfielders Leon Britton and Joe Allen.

Britton was the quintessential holding midfielder, expert in keeping possession, passing and distributing the ball around. Britton averaged 62.7 passes per match during the season and in process became the 10th most prolific passer in the league. Moreover, he finished the season with a passing accuracy of 93.4%, which was more than the Barcelona maestros Xavi (92.4%) and Busquets(91.5%), and therefore became the most accurate passer among the top 5 leagues in Europe. Raking up 1.7 tackles and 1.6 interceptions per game, Britton was found lacking in the defensive aspect of what is required from a player playing in his position. However, Britton’s tendency to remain deep gave Angel Rangel the freedom to bomb forward and link up play with Dyer and the midfield. Rangel averaged 66.9 passes per game, the 6th best in the league. Britton was Swansea’s metronome; their pass – master which made them tick.

Swansea v/s Liverpool 1-0, Britton attempted 79 passes at a pass accuracy of 96% helping Swansea dominate possession against Liverpool.

Joe Allen, on the other hand, was the typical hard tackling British midfielder but playing with a philosophy which required him to keep possession. Being made to play as the destroyer of the team, Allen finished the season as the 10th best tackler in the league with 3.1 tackles per game. Add to that, 2.1 interceptions per game, a passing accuracy of 91.2% and an average of 60.5 passes per game, Joe Allen was a joy to watch on field while donning different roles – holding midfielder, central midfielder or attacking midfielder from time to time according to the needs of the team. Such was his influence on the game that Joe Allen struggling in a game would become synonymous to Swansea struggling to pull things together more often than not. Allen would go on to finish the season with 4 goals and 2 assists and also land the Young Player of the Year award.

Fulham v/s Swansea 0-3, Joe Allen had a near perfect game against Fulham attempting 80 passes with a pass accuracy of 91%, scoring a goal, registering 6 tackles and 3 interceptions along the way.

Much of the attacking prowess of the Swansea City team would be the responsibility of the wingers Scott Sinclair and Nathan Dyer and the attacking midfielder Sigurdsson; after he joined the team on loan from 1899 Hoffenheim in January and Mark Gower / Joe Allen before him. Capable of both stretching the play and cutting in from the wings, Sinclair scored 8 goals and assisted a further 4 while Dyer scored 5 and assisted a further 2 goals. 13 goals and 6 assists combined left Swansea wanting for more final product from their wingers. More goals from the wide men would have significantly affected Swansea’s league standings come the season end.

Sigurdsson though was phenomenal during the limited time he was at Swansea, scoring 7 goals and assisting a further 3 in only 17 appearances. Furthermore, he produced 2.8 key passes per game which was 3rd best in the division behind only Juan Mata (3) and David Silva (2.9).

Fulham v/s Swansea 1-2, Sigurdsson made 4 key passes, scored a goal and assisted Danny Graham

Swansea scored 44 goals (a number which surely didn’t live up to their expectations) during the course of the season, 12 of them coming from the poacher Danny Graham. Graham finished at the 12th spot in the goal scorer standings for the season ahead of the likes of Luis Suarez and Javier Hernandez. Danny Graham was poacher redefined during that season, a season where there was a talk around that poachers are a dying breed. Graham was leading the line in a team which was primarily a possession based high pressing unit building up its attacks by quick passing.

Swansea didn’t score as much as they would have liked, coupled with conceding 51 goals in the process was the difference between finishing 11th (joint with West Bromwich Albion (10th) on 47 points and on Goal Difference of -7 ) and 2 – 3 places higher. The defensive line of Rangel – Williams – Caulker – Taylor though complemented the team in implementing the philosophy of the team. Ashley Williams averaged 70.1 passes per game behind only Arteta (Arsenal), Toure (Manchester City), Carrick (Manchester United) and Modric (Tottenham) to finish as the 5th most prolific passer in the division.

BEST MATCH: SWANSEA 3 – 2 ARSENAL Swansea’s home game against Arsenal can easily be called as the pinnacle of their season where they were able to dominate the play against a side famous for their passing – possession based play. Swansea won applauds not only from the neutrals but also from the Gunners. Swansea was in control of the possession and made Arsenal played much of the game on the counter, out Arsenal – ing Arsenal. Joe Allen was once again instrumental both defensively (5 tackles) and offensively (1 assist) and was ably assisted by his wingers Dyer (1 goal) and Sinclair (1 penalty) and the attacking midfielder Sigurdsson (1 assist) who was sent on for Agustein at the start of second half.

The end of season brought upon about the usual – departures galore from the first team. Rodgers left for Liverpool taking Joe Allen along with him while Sinclair was shipped off to Manchester City. Caulker’s loan spell ended and he returned to Tottenham along with Glyfi Sigurdsson.