Salomón Rondón is proving to be West Bromwich Albion’s lucky talisman, but the 13-minute hat-trick that maintained his club’s unlikely challenge for Europe heaped further travel woe on Swansea City.
The Welsh club have only one point from their past seven away fixtures and correcting their dismal form on the road with be crucial to Bob Bradley’s hopes of reviving their season and avoiding relegation.
For Rondón, though, life gets better by the week and the first all-headed Premier League hat-trick since Duncan Ferguson’s for Everton against Bolton Wanderers in 1997 propelled an ever-improving Albion side to seventh in the table. They have yet to lose a game when the Venezuelan has scored.
While Bradley faces a weary fight to keep his club safe, Tony Pulis can target as a minimum his first finish in the top half of the Premier League.
His side took time to find the form that had swept aside Burnley and Watford in their previous home matches, with Rondón missing two fine chances with his feet before half-time, but he had no such trouble in the air.
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“He’s getting better and he’s scoring goals,” Pulis said. “He finds it very difficult at times to understand how hard every game is, but that comes with time.
“He was up and down last year but he’s been more consistent this year. The great thing about tonight is that he missed two great chances in the first half and it hasn’t affected him.
“The 20 minutes after half-time was more like us and obviously he scored a wonderful hat-trick.”
Rondón’s misses, in which he was thwarted first by Lukasz Fabianski in the Swansea goal and then by Jordi Amat, the defender, were the most noteworthy moments of a tepid first half but it took just five minutes’ play in the second half for the home side to break the deadlock.
Nacer Chadli was fouled wide on the right and the resultant free kick, delivered with pace by Matt Phillips, was headed home powerfully inside the near post by Rondón.
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Phillips then missed a good chance to double the lead before Rondón took over to complete his hat-trick.
Both times Chris Brunt was the provider with crosses from the left and, after 61 and 63 minutes, Rondón rose at the far post to head home; his hat-trick-clinching effort eventually finding its way in off the crossbar.
Swansea’s consolation goal arrived with 12 minutes remaining when Wayne Routledge scored from close range after Ben Foster had saved from Borja González.
“If we do go down we have to be able to get back into the game, string some passes together, not panic or lose or concentration or belief,” Bradley said.
“There was a 13-minute stretch where we lost our way, but a spell late on when we played some decent stuff. We can do this but if we’re playing well and somehow we go behind, that doesn’t change everything. If we keep playing our football, keep doing things right, we’ll get back into the game.”
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Referee: M Oliver.