Rodgers hails convincing victory

Brendan Rodgers believes Swansea City were ‘outstanding’ following their 2-0 victory over Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium.

The Welsh side controlled large parts of the game and recorded their third away victory of the season thanks to an impressive double from Icelandic midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson.

“It was a convincing win,” Rodgers said. “I thought we were outstanding today, we showed every element of our game.”

“Some of our play was outstanding and obviously we scored two goals and could’ve had three or four.”

“When we had the man (Nathan Dyer) sent off we had to show other side of our game. I still felt we had great control but we didn’t have the ball so much but we restricted them to very few chances.”

Rodgers heaped praise on Sigurdsson, who scored a stunning long-range effort in the final seconds of the first half and doubled his tally with an excellent free kick to secure the three points.

“Glyfi creates goals and scores goals,” Rodgers said. “He’s a midfield player who’s instinct is to score goals, and in this league you need players with those qualities.”

“Possession is no good on its own, you have to have penetration and Gylfi gives us that.”

“He’s been a huge plus since he’s come in, it’s what he’s here to for to create and score goals and he does that masterfully.”

Despite the defeat, Wigan boss Martinez was also full of praise for Swansea’s performance and cited the midweek international friendlies as part of the reason why his side failed to deliver.

“Physically we couldn’t cope,” Martinez said. “Give credit to Swansea, they took the goals extremely well, especially the first one and that’s the reason we lost the game.”

“They were clinical with the two goals and that’s been a real good cushion. They made it very frustrating for us, we got really anxious, and I think the position in the table showed too much in our environment.”

“It’s a result that I need to take responsibility (for), we were not anywhere near the level we showed against Villa, Bolton and Everton.”

“It’s a reality check but we need to get ready for last 11 games, we know what we have to do and now is the time to focus on that.”

“(We had) people arriving last night from seven, eight, nine hour flights and we’ve had eight players away but that’s not an excuse it’s a reality.”