A late Andre Ayew winner has seen Swansea City end a six-match winless run by beating Aston Villa 2-1 at Villa Park to increase the pressure on Tim Sherwood.
Both sides came into the match short of form, with Villa having lost seven of their last eight league games since their only win of the season to date on the opening day, but it was the hosts, without a home league win since May, who started the brighter.
However, the visitors grew into the match and had the first clear sight of goal when indecision between Idrissa Gana and Leandro Bacuna allowed Gylfi Sigurdsson to steal in and curl narrowly wide.
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As Jefferson Montero began to find some joy down the left flank against Alan Hutton, Swansea should have taken the lead from a resulting corner when Bafetimbi Gomis headed a corner back across goal but Federico Fernandez could only volley over from six yards.
Villa attempted to stem the tide and had a half-chance themselves when Rudy Gestede fired wide after the striker had held off Fernandez on the edge of the box.
The game found some bite after the half-hour mark when captains Micah Richards and Ashley Williams were both booked after squaring up to one another, before Gestede came close again when he headed Bacuna's fine corner over the bar six minutes before the whistle as the teams headed into the break level.
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Villa started the second period with greater intent and when Jack Grealish got involved for the first time it yielded the hosts' biggest chance of the match when the youngster played in Gabriel Agbonlahor, but the striker could only curl wide from 12 yards.
Shortly after the hour mark, two goals in the space of six minutes set the game alight. After Andre Ayew had been denied well by Brad Guzan, his brother Jordan opened the scoring at the other end when he headed home Villa's first goal of October after a swift counter.
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However, the home crowd's joy was shortlived as Sigurdsson stepped up to curl a fine free kick past Guzan from 25 yards to level almost immediately as the clock ticked towards the final 20 minutes.
From that point on there only looked like being one winner, and shortly after Jonjo Shelvey should have done better, Swansea's Ayew slid in to convert Kyle Naughton's cross and steal all three points for Garry Monk's side.
Tom Nightingale
