Swansea vs Aston Villa match report: Federico Fernandez takes Swans close to top-flight safety
Swansea 1 Aston Villa 0
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Your support makes all the difference.Swansea moved to the brink of Premier League safety as Federico Fernandez’s first goal for the club condemned Aston Villa to a sixth-straight defeat.
The Argentinian centre-half bundled home early in the second half when Villa keeper Brad Guzan failed to connect with Gylfi Sigurdsson’s free-kick and the Welsh side are now 11 points clear of the bottom three.
Yet this was as poor as any display of a difficult Swansea campaign and they were outplayed and outfought by Villa during the opening 45 minutes.
The unbalanced selection of Sigurdsson on the left – when the Iceland international had scored seven goals in 11 games at number 10 – played a part but Swansea were alarmingly off the pace.
Villa, at the end of a week of bloodletting that had seen the board reshuffled and sporting director Henrik Almstadt and chief executive Tom Fox leaving their posts, did not deserve to suffer yet another defeat as they fell a dozen points adrift of improbable survival.
They capitalised on early Swansea nerves with Jordan Ayew robbing Jack Cork and firing over the bar, while Ciaran Clark twice failed to make the most of having escaped his marker at set-pieces.
Modou Barrow was the only bright spark for Swansea, with his pace troubling Aly Cissokho and teeing up a Sigurdsson chance that Lescott blocked.
Francesco Guidolin brought Leon Britton on for Ki Sung-yueng at the break and the direction he gave Swansea’s play made the difference.
Villa found themselves pressed on the back foot and another Cissokho foul on Barrow – for which the Frenchman was fortunate not to receive a second yellow card – provided the platform for Fernandez’s winner.
Swansea: (4-2-3-1) Fabianski; Rangel, Fernandez, Williams, Kingsley (Routledge 83); Cork, Ki (Britton 46); Barrow (Naughton 78), Fer, Sigurdsson; Gomis.
Aston Villa: (4-2-3-1) Guzan; Hutton, Clark (Green 62), Lescott, Cissokho; Westwood, Gueye; Ayew, Gil (Agbonlahor 74), Veretout; Gestede.
Referee: Mike Dean
Man of the match: Ashley Williams (Swansea)
Match rating: 3/10
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