It is Middlesbrough who go into Christmas in good festive spirit after this routine walkabout against a Swansea side who remain rooted in the relegation zone.
No wonder that Aitor Karanka, the Middlesbrough manager, was a relieved man. “This was a massive win,” he said.
“It was a game where there was a lot of pressure. But we showed we can win games and showed once again we can score goals.
“These wins against direct opponents are always really important. Everybody in this group is really confident. We’ve picked up experience after every game.” The fact that the Teesiders had only scored a meagre 13 goals before kick-off, the lowest in the Premier League, shows just how tepid the visitors were.
It was never supposed to be this easy. After all, Swansea were only three points below their hosts, but here they were eventually taken apart with little defence. These are worrying times for their manager Bob Bradley. They have now conceded 18 goals in their past six games away from Wales and there was no hint of happier times ahead.
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It was all over within 30 minutes as Alvaro Negredo registered a rare brace. The first came courtesy of a pinpoint cross from Adam Clayton calmly swept home from just inside the penalty area. The second was simply calamitous. Jordi Amat clumsily tripped Adam Forshaw for the easiest of spot-kick decisions and the chance for Negredo to neatly sidefoot to the left with goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski diving in the opposite direction.
In between, Gaston Ramirez fired a fierce free kick just over the bar.
All the points were wrapped up like a present by the 58th minute, with Martin de Roon cushioning the ball home from close range.
By now, Swansea had raised the white flag and it seemed appropriate that they usually wear all white. It was an afternoon of timid surrender.
Indeed, Victor Valdes in the home goal could have gone Christmas shopping. He was just a spectator after his only real intervention, which came on three minutes as he spectacularly palmed away Gylfi Sigurdsson’s shot from outside the box. It looked then as though Valdes could be in for a busy afternoon but it proved to be a false start as Swansea barely registered another effort anywhere near the target by the interval.
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Events in the second half were just as one-dimensional. Only a looped header from Alfie Mawson that sailed over the target came anywhere near troubling the home goal before there was a late header from the otherwise anonymous Fernando Llorente that forced Valdes into belated action.
Bradley said: “[This] was the first time we didn’t take care of business against one of the teams around us in the table. Everyone has to stick together in tough times and fight the fight.
“We put ourselves in a big hole and we tried to see if we could push our way out of it in the second half. When you put yourself in that position it is difficult to get yourselves out of it.
“I go in motivated every day. I love this football club and I knew the challenge when I came here.”
Star man: Alvaro Negredo (Middlesbrough)