Swansea romp to Fulham win

Swansea seemed destined for relegation at the start of the season but are now worthy of their top-half spot [GETTY]

Swansea turned on the style as Gylfi Sigurdsson’s double inspired an impressive 3-0 win at Fulham on Saturday.

Brendan Rodgers’ team have earned plenty of plaudits for their eye-catching play since last season’s promotion from the Championship and they delivered one of their best performances of the campaign to rout the Cottagers thanks to two goals from Sigurdsson and a Joe Allen strike.

After beating title challengers Manchester City last weekend, this was further proof that Rodgers and his entertaining team have what it takes to make their mark in the top flight.

They are up to eighth in the Premier League table after their third successive victory, while Fulham slip to 11th.

Finding rhythm

Rodgers was forced to make one change to the starting line-up that beat City as Wales defender Ashley Williams saw his run of 169 consecutive appearances brought to an end by a virus and was replaced in central defence by Garry Monk.

That switch initially seemed to trouble Swansea and Dutch goalkeeper Michel Vorm had to be at his best to keep out efforts from Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele.

However, Rodgers’ men gradually found their rhythm and Sigurdsson saw a low effort flash wide in the 29th minute.

Fulham did not take heed of the warnings and found themselves a goal behind in the 36th minute.

Wayne Routledge darted down the right flank and sent a cross to the back post, which was nodded across goal by Scott Sinclair for Sigurdsson to head home.

Swansea looked in total control now and they doubled their advantage in the 66th minute.

Sigurdsson, on loan from Hoffenheim, played a neat one-two with Routledge before bursting through to shoot past Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

The Cottagers contributed to their own downfall when Swansea sealed the points in the 77th minute.

A poor pass from former Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos allowed Swansea to work the ball towards Allen. Senderos compounded his error by standing off Allen and the midfielder took full advantage to fire home.

Wigan loss

In the day’s other game Wigan’s miserable home record continued as the relegation-threatened side were held to a 1-1 draw by West Bromwich Albion at the DW Stadium.

With only two Premier League fixtures scheduled on Saturday, Roberto Martinez’s men could have climbed out of the bottom three if they had managed to record their first home win since August.

However James McArthur’s second-half strike for the Latics was cancelled out by Paul Scharner’s equaliser for West Brom leaving Wigan winless at home for the 14th match in a row.