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PREMIER LEAGUE: Spot-on Bojan fires Stoke to victory at Swansea

Swansea 0 Stoke 1: Stoke climb above Chelsea and into 11th place in the Premier League with their first win at Swansea since 1993 thanks a fourth-minute Bojan penalty

PREMIER LEAGUE: Spot-on Bojan fires Stoke to victory at Swansea

Stoke completed a third successive Premier League victory with a relatively comfortable win at the Liberty Stadium.

The game's decisive moment came as early as the third minute when Ashley Williams brought down Bojan and the Spaniard confidently tucked away his second goal of the season to send Stoke to a 1-0 victory which moves them to 11th place in the Premier League.

But Swansea might wonder whether they should have played against 10 men for most of the night following goalkeeper Jack Butland's rash challenge on Andre Ayew outside the area after 17 minutes.

Butland took a bad touch from Geoff Cameron's back pass and as Ayew closed in on the ball the England goalkeeper went in to the challenge studs first.

There was no doubt that Butland took the ball but some officials might have considered his actions reckless and reached for the red card.

Referee Robert Madley, however, judged it a fair challenge and waved play on much to Swansea's obvious displeasure.

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The odds appeared stacked against Stoke as they had not won at the Liberty Stadium in four previous Premier League visits and it was almost four years since they had managed successive wins on the road.

But Stoke were the form team of the pair, their 1-0 success at Aston Villa last time out yielding a third successive win in all competitions, while Swansea had not won in five league and cup outings.

Those contrasting confidence levels were reflected almost instantly when Jack Cork's mistake allowed Bojan to run at the heart of the Swansea defence.

Bojan slipped past Federico Fernandez and tempted Williams into a careless challenge which was firmly punished from the spot, the fourth penalty in the last five fixtures between the two clubs.

Bojan Krkic scores the first goal for Stoke from the penalty spot
Bojan Krkic scores the first goal for Stoke from the penalty spot

Swansea hit the post through Jonjo Shelvey early in the second half but struggled to open up a resolute Stoke side who claimed their third successive league win to climb to 11th.

Swansea drop to 14th.

"Very disappointed with the result," Swansea boss Garry Monk said. "Once they got the goal it was clear they would defend very deep and that made it very difficult to break them down.

"We are in a period where we are not performing to those levels we had at the start of the season."