Swansea vs. ARSENAL (LIBERTY STADIUM)

Alikhan Popat
Jan 30, 2017
7 min read

At the Traveling Supporter, we may once in a while do what we like to call a 'Flash Back Post'. This will be a post based on a game that was played at a time before the actual weekend it was played. This of course is one of those but there will be many more going back months or even years from our featured writers. And as we probably won't be traveling to Swansea again in a long time as it was one of the harder grounds to get to, we had to put this post up!

Match: Swansea 0 - 4 ARSENAL

League: Premier League

Stadium: Liberty Stadium

Date: January 14th, 2017 - 3:00 PM Kick Off

Preview

It was no doubt that this game was important for both teams going in but for very different reasons. Arsenal needed a victory to keep up with the rest of the pack at the top of the table whereas Swansea needed a much needed win or even a draw to get some points back on the board after losing the last 4 out of their last 5 matches. With Swansea winning their last match against Crystal Palace in stunning fashion with a last minute winner, there was some limited hope but going against Arsenal is always a daunting task (Common you gunners!). With that being said however, Arsenal were in very poor away form going into the game only grabbing 1 point from their last three away matches in the Premier League.

All bets were on the Arsenal but with the Premier League, anything is possible.

Tickets

Price: 30 Pounds

Source: The source for this game is a good mate of mine and chose to go private and not release his name. However, if you are a big gooner, you can get in touch with us at The Traveling Supporter and we can see what we can do to help you get your hands on some away tickets as they can be hard to come by if you don't have a membership.

Thirty pounds for an away ticket is quite reasonable in comparison to what I've had to pay in relation to other away matches, take Chelsea for example which was 83 pounds but that of course was a London derby. But with Swansea also being a smaller team, it made sense that we got the ticket for such a reasonable price and there was no reason to be complaining!

In terms of Arsenal away tickets and our source, we have luckily had some of the best tickets available. As away tickets can be given away at random you can usually be anywhere in the stand allocated for away fans but every time I have gone away I have got great seats and this match didnt disappoint in that regard.

How good do you ask were these seats? Well our row was Row G which meant we were only 7 rows up from the field and had a great view and were located behind the right to the goal in front of us.

Here is the view below:

In terms of the cost, it was well worth it and with the luck of the draw, some of the best seats in the house. The interesting thing if you are either from Canada or the United States you may find this odd. But when it comes to football or at least at the Grove (Arsenal Stadium), the closer you get to the pitch, the less the cost of the tickets. And the more to the higher up to the middle you go, the more expensive the seats become. The view point at all stadiums is the same for the middle being more expensive but as in North American sports where you pay more for being closer the field, it is not quite the same when it comes to football in Europe as your view is harder in relation to seeing the entire pitch.

Travel to Stadium

Method: Train - National Rail - http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Traveling to the Liberty Stadium was probably the most difficult or time consuming part of the trip. It took us 8 hours in total, 4 hours to Swansea and 4 hours back just to make the trip down. Now generally the games I've been to out of London naturally go in between the 2-3 hour travel time but this was the furthest trip I've done.

Our trip to the Liberty (in short):

The part that made this trip that much harder was not only that we were going to do a different country (Wales if you need to re-check your geography) but also that there was construction going on at the Swansea rail station. This meant that we had to take a train for 3 and a half hours and switch at Port Talbot and take a bus for half an hour to get into the city centre.

If you can manage that, then it was not a problem at all but some people just don't have the passion or the patience to take 8 hours to watch a football match which lasts two hours - well I guess not everybody is a 'Traveling Supporter'.

It should be mentioned that before we actually went to the ground, we walked around in the city centre for quite a bit and as most of the restaurants and bars are all on one street in Swansea, everything was very accessible. We took a quick stop at the beach which I would recommend and grabbed some grub before heading to the stadium.

In terms of getting to the stadium from the city centre, you can either take the local transit or walk. We chose to walk and it took us only 25-30 minutes which isnt too far. From the actual Swansea railway stop in town, the walk is only about 20 minutes.

Note: If you are looking for a good pub before the match, the main two which were packed with away supporters was Yates which was in Swansea's city centre and also the Morfa Parc Harvester which is located right in front of the Liberty Stadium.

Stadium

The Liberty Stadium is relatively new as it was only built in 2005 and for a modern day stadium, that is quite new when looking at most of the grounds in England apart from the bigger clubs which are renovating and/or building larger and more lavish stadiums.

With a club the size of Swansea, its a great size and with it being a smaller stadium, it doesnt really matter where you sit as you will always get a great view of the match and feel that closeness to the action and to the players.

You can definitely see however that the stadium needs some work done from the outside and being painted completely white, it is taking its toll as it definitely needs a new paint job!

Regardless of this and regardless of the stadium being small, we definitely recommend a visit to the Liberty at least once if you are supporting your team away.

Security at the ground was pretty standard and you only had to go through one round of security to get yourself inside which was nice. In terms of food and drinks inside the stadium, pretty standard with your over-priced pies and burgers as well as with your standard beer!

Atmosphere

In terms of the atmosphere, we didnt really know what to expect coming into Swansea. From what we were told, Swansea in general was a family club and from past experiences there werent many home supporters who were looking for trouble.

In terms of the home support, at the beginning of the match, they were superb and that was probably because they were putting a shit load of pressure on Arsenal in the first 20 minutes. There was one point where they sang the same chant in Welsh for about a good 2-3 minutes at the top of the their lungs without break. These fans which of course were the loudest and the most passionate and were located to the left of us in the corner.

The Arsenal away fans as usual were in good voice but were quite patchy in all honesty. We all know generally that gooners sing more when they are winning, and we even sang that as well because lets be honest, its the truth. I also have to say that I've been to better matches in terms of the Arsenal away fans as they have been much louder and passionate but with it being Swansea away, it wasnt anything I didnt expect.

But of course as usual, the gooners came in full voice once the goals started banging in and the banter started between the two groups of fans which were quite close to each other. It has to said that maybe the drinks were flowing that much more so after the break as the away boys started to shout abuse at the Swans supporters letting them know they wouldnt be in the Premier League next season. Apart from that and probably one of my most favourite chants erupted as we all started singing, "Swansea's a shit hole, I wanna go home!". Although I partook in the abuse, I still hope Swansea stay up as they play some decent football and I'm quite a fan of Glyfi Sigurosson at least when I don't remember he played for spuds - dont remind me.

Injury Time (Overall Review)

If you have a chance to travel to the Liberty to watch your team in action and are up for a hell of a treck with your mates, this away day is worth it. Although Swansea is a small city and can be seen as a shit hole which in many ways is true - its one day you wont forget with the travel. The town centre is worth a visit as well as the beach before making your way to ground as well. Once again, if you are looking for two pubs where at the time had a lot of away supporters - be sure to check out Yates in the town centre as well as the Morfa Parc Harvester located right in front of the stadium.

In terms of the match, the result went the way everybody predicted as Arsenal walked all over Swansea in the end. That isnt to be said that the Swans didnt cause a lot of trouble in the first 20 minutes as the Arsenal once again looked like they were unprepared and even at times looked like they were ripe for the taking. But thanks to a key goal from Olivier Giroud before the half time whistle and two own goals and a Sanchez volley, the boys in red and white walked the victors and stayed afloat with the rest of the pack at the top.

TTS (The Traveling Supporter) Rating: 7.5/10