Force of nature André Ayew dragging Swansea towards the Premier League

As the clock ticked into the 97th minute of a fairly underwhelming Championship arm wrestle between Swansea City and Middlesbrough, only one man in the stadium appeared to keep his composure.

Swansea had just been awarded a controversial penalty, given for a challenge by George Saville on substitute Jake Bidwell as the home side chased a win to keep in touch with the automatic promotion places.

Referee Gavin Ward initially gave a corner before being convinced to point to the spot by his assistant, going some way to explaining why Boro boss Neil Warnock was left searching for further expletives to hurl in Ward’s direction that he had not already used at some point in the afternoon.

As Warnock raged and the Swansea bench took to their feet in unison – an acknowledgement that they were engulfed by both the excitement of potentially winning three points they barely deserved and the fear of missing a gilt-edge opportunity to stay in touch with both Watford and Norwich after their victories earlier in the day – the game took on a frenzied element that had been missing throughout.

After the Boro players surrounded Ward for the second time on the day – earlier they had protested the disallowing of a Marc Bola equaliser – ‘keeper Marcus Bettinelli began to frantically bounce on his line in the way that goalkeepers do in an attempt to either test the mentality of the kick-taker or suppress their own nerves.

Still just one man remained solely focused on the task at hand.

André Ayew calmly strolled up to the dead ball, waited for Bettinelli to throw himself to his left and placed his effort into the middle of the goal to spark delirium at the Liberty Stadium.

It had largely been a frustrating afternoon for Ayew.

Even though he opened the scoring just before half-time with a clever finish from a tight angle after Middlesbrough’s Jonny Howson and Bola had made a hash of clearing the second ball from a Swansea free-kick, he was a spectator for much of the ninety minutes.

Boro were organised and well drilled, rarely opening up to allow the Ghanian forward to collect the ball in the sort of areas he can impact the game from.

A disjointed first half performance from the home side even saw Ayew’s regularly impeccable first touch let him down several times as he struggled to find a breakthrough.

Although the opening goal was undeserved, it was yet another indication that the former Marseille forward is playing a level below his ability. Ayew was the only man in the penalty area gambling on Howson and Bola making an error, allowing him ample room to fire home when the ball eventually fell his way.

Much of Swansea’s success this season has been built around their sturdiness as a collective unit, but Ayew continues to stand out as one of the Championship’s exceptional individuals.

The game slows down when he is in possession, he never rushes to make a pass or begin a dribble, almost as if he is taking a moment to calculate exactly how he can get the better of an opponent and also coax team-mates into making the movement he desires of them.

Despite being just 5 foot 8, he can compete in the air with even the Championship’s most physical centre-backs – a category Boro’s Dael Fry and Grant Hall certainly fall into – and his work-rate is a reflection of a desire to lead this young side to success rather than that of a want-away superstar forced to play with players who are not as gifted as he is.

As Steve Cooper’s side attempted to build play around Ayew’s every movement, you could be forgiven for forgetting he is not even really supposed to still be playing for Swansea.

Very few expected the Ghanian to still be in south Wales by this season.

Relegation from the Premier League in 2018 saw him loaned out to Fenerbache in order to get his astronomic-by-Championship-standards wages off the books, but an unsuccessful spell in Turkey saw Ayew return to the Liberty in the same summer that Cooper became Swansea’s head coach.

After being the driving force behind the Swans’ run to the play-off semi-finals at the end of last season with 16 goals and seven assists, it was expected he would again move on to a club further up the food chain with just a year left on his contract.

However, he has made it clear that getting Swansea back in the top-flight was more than enough motivation to stick around.

“I just need to focus on what I am doing – it’s here. When you have people that give you so much love and so much confidence you have to give it back, and the only way I can give it back is on the pitch, so that’s the only thing I’m focused on.

“I’m not thinking on beyond my contract. I’m just thinking how I can make sure Swansea get back into the Premier League.”

– André Ayew speaking to BBC Sport Wales in December 2020

Ayew was named the club’s vice-captain ahead of this season and has often looked to be their leader on the pitch regardless of whether or not he is wearing the armband.

Although there has been less reliance on his goals compared to last season, he remains involved in the majority of games by instructing others what to do and how they can best get the ball to him.

The 31-year-old recently went on a run of scoring just once in nine games but there was never even an inkling of a suggestion that he could be rested to help re-find his best form, or that he wasn’t still the talisman of Cooper’s side.

As he calmly stepped up to take the last-minute penalty on Saturday, it were as though nothing else in the world really mattered.

Sam Morsy’s equaliser for Boro in the first minute of second half injury-time caused Ayew to let out a roar of frustration that suggested even his influence would not be enough to guide his side to victory, but the referee’s late change of heart meant Swansea’s outstanding individual was left in control of the game’s defining moment.

The complaints of Warnock and his players were little more than noise to him, the nerves that had seemed to inhibit many of his team-mates on the afternoon were an irrelevance, the undeniable importance of this one kick in the context of Swansea’s promotion hopes appeared to mean next to nothing.

After he nonchalantly walked up to the last-minute penalty and sent Bettinelli the wrong way, Ayew instigated wild scenes in the Swansea dugout as players and staff piled in to celebrate a hard-fought victory – the type of which their season has been built on.

The goal that sank Boro came just three days after Ayew had done exactly the same thing to Stoke City, practically singlehandedly ensuring Swansea are still right in the mix for automatic promotion in the process.

Warnock even begrudgingly admitted his admiration for Ayew after the game, calling him a ‘great pro’ despite his focus largely being on the performance of referee Ward.

“Where do you start with the disallowed goal? He thought it was a free-kick to them. He hasn’t seen Bolasie has won the ball, its either a penalty or goal.

“He’s made the mistake and we bear the brunt.

“Then for the penalty, I’m bewildered because he pointed to the corner but he assures me when he thought about it he thought George didn’t get the ball and it was a penalty. So I asked why he pointed to a corner, are you guessing?”

“I’m sure I’ll get an apology from Alan Wiley (Head of refereeing at the PGMOL), I don’t know what to do with them, I’ve got that many.”

– Middlesbrough manager Neil Warnock

Swansea now sit third in the Championship, a point behind second-placed Watford with two games in hand on the Hornets.

Their performances in recent weeks have been less than convincing, but with Ayew able to haul them through games by either inspiring others or scoring himself, they look set to remain in the promotion race until the bitter end.

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