Perhaps the most high profile pairing English football has to offer showed the dark side of the beautiful game this past weekend. Elsewhere, two clubs with only a tiny percentage of the wealth and glamour of those clubs served up a feast of football to give us a thrilling reminder of all that is great about the Premier League.
Norwich City became only the second team after the Champions to leave Wales with all three Premier League points in a superb contest that illustrated once again just how well Paul Lambert’s team have done - eighth place and just 4 points from Liverpool is a far cry from the basement battle that many, or most, predicted they would suffer this season.
If their form has come as a surprise to the common football supporter or pundit, then it certainly hasn’t been to those connected to the club - back in September, Canaries legend Darren Eadie told me from what he’d seen in the early weeks of the season, Norwich were easily capable of a mid table finish.
And from that conversation in the last week of September, until the turn of the year, their only losses came against Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham and Arsenal - and their players have been in such form that the likes of Grant Holt and John Ruddy have been mentioned as possible outsiders for England’s European Championship squad. Bradley Johnson and Anthony Pilkington have been consistent performers in the midfield while Wes Hoolahan has been a valuable creative outlet, and at the back, Leon Barnett has been something of a revelation.
They have been rewarded for their approach; a bold, fearless attitude and a resolve to stick to the philosophy that gained the team promotion has been to the benefit of both Norwich and Swansea; and, in the respective teams narrow results with those at the very top of the table, they have demonstrated that the gulf in class is perhaps not quite as big as you would initially think.
Lambert described last week’s victory at Carrow Road over Bolton as the best under his reign, and his players responded to that by winning a pulsating tie on Saturday - though the Scot re-iterated his faith in his troops’ ability, he refused to get carried away, saying he sees it still as “a survival season” and that the “fear is driving them on”. Some fear!
Likewise; Swansea’s debut season in the Premier League is nothing short of remarkable. Earlier in the campaign you could almost hear the derisory howls when statisticians pointed out that Leon Britton’s passing completion was higher than Barcelona maestro Xavi. An anomaly it may have been at the time; but that rate was at 98% against United, 96% against Chelsea and 88% against the team some used to dub “Barca-lite”, Arsenal, in a year that sees his overall completion rate currently stand at 93.1%.
Statistics, passing graphs and chalkboards are not needed to discuss the marvellous run that Swansea have been on; making their home a fortress has been a large element of that success and it was only a bad finish from Danny Graham and a stunning save from Ruddy to deny Caulkner at the death that stood between them and defeat against Norwich.
Freak scorelines between the bigger teams, comebacks from former legends, and of course incredible controversy has made this one of the most fascinating Premier League seasons since its inception – and the sterling efforts of the promoted sides has been one that has elicited much admiration from neutrals, and most certainly one of the most thrilling stories of the campaign.
In years gone by there have been plucky underdogs who people got behind in almost a patronising or condescending manner; there has been none of that this season. That’s thanks in no small part to their approach – deciding against the (admittedly understandable) cagey formations at places like Anfield and Old Trafford to instead play with two front men and prove that giving it a go doesn’t necessarily mean top flight kamikaze.
We’re heading towards that time of season where the votes are cast for players, teams, and managers of the season. Roberto Mancini leads Manchester City’s charge for a first title since 1968 yet his achievements pale in comparison to Lambert and Rodgers; and the duo that when together sound like a cigarette brand are surely separated by little more than a cigarette paper when it comes to naming the manager of the year.