LONDON: Swansea City defeated Manchester United 2-1 for the third successive meeting as Louis van Gaal’s side’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season ground to a halt at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday.

After an entertaining first half ended goalless Juan Mata fired Luke Shaw’s teasing cross into the roof of the net in the 48th minute before Swansea took control.

Andre Ayew restored parity with a headed effort 13 minutes later before Bafetimbi Gomis maintained his superb form with a low shot five minutes later.

“It was a very difficult game,” Swansea captain Ashley Williams told Sky Sports. “We had to dig deep. Any time you can beat one of the top teams shows our improvement. We keep working every day and every week. We want to be a consistently good side.”

Van Gaal had lost 2-1 at home to Swansea in his first game as United manager last season and having also seen his team go down by the same scoreline in the return fixture, he was given more reason to curse Garry Monk’s side on the occasion of his 50th game in English football.

“The opponent changed their shape and we could not cope. That is not good, “the United manager told Sky Sports.

“We lost in that five minutes and it is a pity because we controlled the game. You have to be compact. We were probably too dominant to have the sense to do that.”

Swansea climbed to fourth place in the table with eight points from four games, a point above United and four below early leaders Manchester City, having started a top-flight campaign with four unbeaten games for the first time in their history.

“We enjoyed that,” said Monk. “In the first 20 minutes United started really well, but second half we were magnificent.

“The players were so brave today and we were clinical when we needed to be. We went to a diamond [formation] in the second half and that helped us. We are a force in this league.”

TADIC SINKS NORWICH

Earlier, Dusan Tadic’s brace and a goal from Graziano Pelle gave Southampton’s stuttering league campaign lift-off with a comfortable 3-0 victory over promoted Norwich City at St Mary’s.

Norwich defender Steven Whittaker was sent off having received two yellow cards within four first-half minutes for professional fouls as the south-coast club registered their first victory of the season.

Man-of-the-match Sadio Mane crossed for Pelle to sweep Southampton ahead in first-half stoppage time before teeing up the first of Tadic’s two goals in the 64th minute.

Tadic struck again three minutes later, following up after Pelle’s header was parried by Norwich goalkeeper John Ruddy.

“It was a very positive result,” said Southampton manager Ronald Koeman, whose side were eliminated from the Europa League by Danish champions FC Midtjylland on Thursday.

“Last Thursday was a big disappointment and it’s always hard to start well, but we played very well at the beginning.”

Southampton moved up to 10th with five points while Norwich sit one point adrift in 14th.

In Saturday’s late fixture, Tottenham Hotspur’s winless start to the season continued when they were held to a goalless draw by fellow European hopefuls Everton at White Hart Lane.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2015

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