Written by Tony Evans at ESPNFC.com
Bob Bradley never looked like a rabbit in the headlights, even when his Swansea City side did appear dazzled. The 58-year-old’s debut as a Premier League manager ended in a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal and was an afternoon of extremes yet, throughout a see-sawing 90 minutes and its thrilling finale, the American was calm and focused. Afterward, Bradley spoke with an eloquent clarity.
No one expected Swansea to win at the Emirates but they could easily have walked away with the three points. The Welsh side could also have been on the end of a six-goal rout. It will take Bradley a day or two to make sense of his team’s performance. Here was evidence of the challenges the new manager faces as well as hints to the potential of his side.
At his interview, Bradley’s incisive tactical views on how to approach the Arsenal game impressed Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins and effectively sealed the job for the American. Certainly, there seemed to be a clear plan from the visiting side at the Emirates.
They dropped deep, flooded the central areas around the edge of their own box and let Arsenal’s full-backs push into the wide areas. When Swansea won back possession, they attempted to get the ball behind Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal and let Wayne Routledge and Modou Barrow race forward.
Three factors made Bradley’s plan unworkable in the early exchanges: Alexis Sanchez’s movement and the tempo of Arsenal’s passing left Swansea bewildered while individual mistakes — Jordi Amat in particular looked lost — added to the mix and it looked like the Welsh side were facing a trouncing. When Arsenal click they are arguably the best side in the Premier League and, at 2-0, it seemed only a matter of how many goals they would score. Swansea looked beaten and dispirited but Bradley roamed the edge of his technical area, shouting instructions, waving his team upfield, encouraging them to close down the home side’s back line and apply pressure further up the pitch.
Bradley’s sideline demeanor is less operatic than that of Antonio Conte and not quite as theatrical as Jurgen Klopp but it is nonetheless as insistent. And it worked. Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka lost the ball under pressure and Gylfi Sigurdsson pulled a goal back just before half-time.
The importance of this goal could be massive. Had Swansea gone into the dressing-room two goals behind, dispirited and disjointed, the game might have got away from Bradley. Instead, they had a foothold in the match: “It allowed us to talk about what we could do in the second half,” their new manager said later.
The ramifications are wider. The deep skepticism that met Bradley’s appointment in parts of the British media is replicated in sections of Swansea’s fanbase. The club is part-owned by a Supporters’ Trust and the American owners did not consult the body, which holds 21 percent, before sacking Francesco Guidolin and appointing Bradley.
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