To extend one of Carlos Carvalhal’s famous analogies, Swansea City have not only been ordered back to their hospital bed, but they have just been handed a worrying set of test results to go with it. This latest loss, to a Bournemouth side who knew a win would guarantee their own top-flight future, leaves them with just one week, and two games, to discharge themselves from a relegation battle which grows increasingly harrowing with each ineffectual performance.
Seven Premier League matches have now passed since Swansea last tasted victory. They have lost their verve at the worst possible time of the season, and have fluffed their lines so often in front of goal that they have found the net just twice in that run.
Carvalhal, who finished this game with chin on his chest and his hands on his hips, has some fine players at his disposal, and many of them performed well enough here. But they were undermined once again by an inability to finish their chances, to hit the pressure points on a Bournemouth team that has no shortage of vulnerabilities.
Swansea could have wrestled control of this dogfight with a positive result, but instead they surrendered it as Ryan Fraser’s goal provided Eddie Howe’s side with just their second victory in 11 matches. The importance of Swansea’s midweek meeting with Southampton has been dialled up another notch.
Unsurprisingly, given the circumstances, this was a match played at a desperate, wide-eyed pace, between two teams that are high on fear and low on confidence. In a chaotic start, the ball bobbled from team to team, a hot potato in the south coast sun. Wired on adrenalin and fired by a fervent atmosphere, both sides were too panicked to pass with any composure or defend with any authority.
It was so frantic, and these defences so uneasy, that chances were inevitable. Callum Wilson nearly skipped through in the first minute of the game, while Bournemouth’s Asmir Begovic made two fine saves from close range after his defenders had botched a Swansea corner.
Alfie Mawson then headed over for the visitors, before Wilson shot high and wide from a fine Fraser cross. Barely 20 minutes had passed, but the opportunities kept coming. Martin Olsson skied a diving header, prompting Carvalhal to kick the floor in anger, while Wilson was soon fouled on the edge of the Swansea box.
The resulting free-kick was touched into the path of Fraser, whose shot burst through the bodies and past Lukasz Fabianski in the Swansea goal. It was a goal that had been coming, but Swansea would have felt aggrieved that it had not been scored by them, given the quality of the chances they had created.
There was still time for two more before the break, but Jordan Ayew blazed both well over the bar. The second, from close range, was a horribly miscued effort in keeping with the general air of agitation around the Vitality. Ayew, Swansea’s top scorer with 11 goals this season, had another go after the break, but Begovic was again equal to his volleyed strike.
Never a side to retreat into their shells, Bournemouth almost doubled the lead after Steve Cook rose to meet a cross from Josh King, who had been going through his party tricks on the right, but the defender headed inexplicably over from just a few yards out.
The game continued to oscillate, and the noise of the ground swung between expectant gasps and disappointed groans. The travelling Swansea fans screamed for their side to ‘attack, attack, attack’ - as if they had not been already - while Bournemouth’s grew increasingly antsy as a frowning Howe paced his dugout.
The latest Swansea opportunity fell to Tom Carroll, but his half-volley ballooned over the bar as the visitors began to run out of both time and ideas. By the end, it looked more likely that Bournemouth would score a second, with Wilson only denied by a remarkable close-range save by Fabianski and Lys Mousset crashing a fierce shot just inches away from the top corner.